


How Yondu Became a Dad and Husband...

by celticheart72



Series: Lives of Ravagers Who Became Guardians [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alien Sex, Alien/Human Relationships, Blood and Torture, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Kid Peter Quill, Kidnapping, Minor Character Death, Original Character Death(s), Parent Yondu Udonta, Protective Yondu, Psionics, Yondu has a heart, Yondu is ruthless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-05-19 13:02:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 34
Words: 68,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14874236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celticheart72/pseuds/celticheart72
Summary: Yondu takes Peter from Terra and soon after meets a Terran woman on Contraxia. His life is never the same again.I do not own GOTG or any of it's characters. Some of this story will follow canon, most will be of my own creation and be OOC and slightly AU.





	1. Ravagers don't deal in slaves

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to both Molli3 and Love-is-Yondu-Blue (SilvreMusgrave) whose fics were the inspiration to get me writing again. I'd been playing around with snippets of Yondu with an OFC and finally decided to just do it. So hopefully everyone enjoys. The violence and rape/non-con tags are there for a reason but when there are potentially triggering chapters I will give fair warning in the beginning notes. I'm a hobby writer and always looking to improve so any constructive criticism, as well as prompts, are welcome.

Yondu had never been with a Terran female before and he was certainly looking forward to it. They were in short supply and high demand since their anatomy was almost universally compatible in some way with that of most male species across the universe. When the Iron Lotus' madame offered him the Terran woman he almost said no knowing that he had a seven-year-old Terran boy on the ship who just recently lost his mother. Then when she told him the woman was feisty his lust won out especially since there was no reason for Peter to ever know.

He opened the door he'd been directed to and stepped inside to find a stunningly beautiful Terran woman standing next to the bed. She had long wavy light coppery hair, bright green eyes, and a body to make any species of man stop in his tracks. Her clothing was gauzy, enough to cover her, but not sufficient to hide what was underneath. When he clicked the door closed behind him she looked right at him and her words had him seeing red.

"I know what you paid for, but whatever you want you'll have to take because I won't participate or give it willingly," she stated flatly.

His red eyes narrowed at her and she didn't even flinch. A sign that she was either extremely brave or too used to some level of violence and poor treatment. "Y'ain't here coz ya wanna be?"

The sound from the woman sounded like a snort, "No."

"Why y'here then?" He knew his voice was menacing but she still didn't move, those green eyes were trained directly on his.

"Not my choice, the madame bought me from the scientists who altered me. I'm a slave." She pulled the collar of her gauzy gown down to show him the thin black choker there with a steady blue light glowing on it.

"Altered?" Yondu asked slowly.

"Yes, altered so I'd age one year for every five earth years. Apparently, Earth girls don’t last long out here because we age so quickly," she replied with a roll of her eyes, her hands lifting to her hips making the gauze of her flimsy gown shift around her drawing his eyes to what he technically paid to have. Her voice brought his eyes back to hers. "Why exactly do you care?"

"Ravagers don't deal in slaves," he growled, then under his breath, "Or kids." That conversation would sting for more years than he cared to admit. At least Peter was safe with him and Ego wouldn’t get his hands on him. Stakar might not have understood but Yondu could do something to make it right somehow. Moving a little closer to the woman he pointed at the 7-pointed flame over his heart, "Anyone with this on their chest been with ya?"

The woman shook her head, "No, yours is the first I've seen of that."

Yondu turned and opened the woman's door, pausing for a second before whipping off his duster, and turned back to her. "Put this on, grab anythin' important to ya."

Her eyes narrowed at him but she did as he instructed and shrugged his long duster on. Fortunately, she was tall enough that it wasn't dragging the ground but it did come to within a few inches of touching the floor. He then watched while she went to a cabinet and pulled out what looked like the same kind of pack Peter had on his back when he picked him up on Terra, only hers was a funny pink color. She shrugged it on and turned to him holding his duster closed in front of her chest. Yondu grabbed ahold of one of her elbows and pulled her behind him and down the stairs to where he could confront the madame.

"Back room now," he demanded when they found her at the bar.

The woman scurried ahead of them to do as she was told with fear in her eyes when he hovered the hand not clasping the Terran’s woman’s elbow above his Yaka arrow. Once they were in the back room he let the woman go, closed the door with an audible click, and rounded on the madame. Crossing his arms over his chest he backed her against the stack of boxes behind her.

"Ya have a sex slave?" Yondu asked, emphasizing the word slave venomously.

The sneeper woman cowered in front of him as he looked down on her, moving his hand to rest on the arrow’s holster. "P...please, sir. Terran females, they are m...much in demand and hard to find to serve as courtesans. Especially those altered to slow their aging." She held up her hands and looked down at her feet while she stammered out her pathetic excuse for an answer.

Yondu emitted a growl low in his throat at the madame. He wasn't fond of sneepers in the first place, and the only reason he tolerated her was because the Iron Lotus fulfilled the needs of most of his crew when they came to Contraxia. "Ya know Contraxia's only got a few laws. Consent is one a' the few."

The madame looked to the Terran woman pointing to her in anger, "She's never said no."

Getting within inches of her face he locked his eyes with hers, "Did'ja ever ask 'er?"

She didn't answer.

"Yer gonna give 'er t'me..." Yondu started and when the madame started to protest he whistled and the Yaka arrow shot out of it's holster and hovered in front of her forehead. "Ain't no laws 'gainst killin' here."

"But she hasn't worked off the fifty thousand units I paid for her!"

Yondu stood up to his full height and looked back to the Terran woman who was calmly watching the exchange and snarled, "How many she sent to ya since ya got here?"

The woman pursed her lips at him, "More than I can count. I barely have time to clean up or deal with injuries before another is coming through my door and I'm lucky if she lets me sleep a few hours at a time or eat in peace."

"How long ya been here?" He asked in a gentler tone.

The woman shrugged, "I don't know the equivalent time here but maybe an Earth month."

Turning back to the sneeper in front of him he bared his teeth and growled, "Ya charged me 500 units. That what’cha charge 'em all?"

The madame shook her head vehemently, "You're a regular sir, because Terran females are so rare non-regulars are charged 1000 units."

“Mmmm…ya got back mor’n ya paid fer ‘er, so here’s what we’re gonna do to keep my arrow from splittin’ yer skull,” he watched the madame dart her eyes wildly between him and his arrow which remained poised in the middle of her forhead. “Yer gonna sign her papers over t’me and gimme the control fer’er collar…” When the madame started to protest again Yondu whistled and the tip of his arrow pierced her skin in the middle of her forehead making her cry out as greenish yellow blood started to leak from the small wound. “And yer gonna pay me ten thousand.”

“But sir that’s too much!!”

Yondu smiled, “Yer choice. Her papers, collar control, and ten thousand, or the arrow. A’course all’I gotta do is let the other Ravager clans know you deal in slaves since I’s the only one you sent to ‘er.”

Backing away from the arrow the sneeper madame started nodding her head as she handed him a control unit from her pocket, “I’ll get her p…papers and the units.” She moved to a safe hidden behind some shelves and pulled out a small stack of papers and a small device used to wire units between accounts.

After she finished logging the transfer Yondu heard the control device on his arm beep indicating he had an alert. Lifting his arm he looked at the screen and smiled then looked back to the madame motioning his eyes to the papers in her hands, “Sign ‘em over.”

She huffed but did as directed then handed the papers over to Yondu while warily watching Yondu’s arrow which still hovered near her.

He looked them over then moved to the Terran woman. Lifting his hand to her neck he caught her eyes, “’M just checkin’ the number on yer collar.”

She nodded tilting her head away from his hands as he compared the collar number to that on the papers in his hand, and then checked it against the control he was given.

Nodding his satisfaction he turned back to the madame, “One more thing. My clan gets the bots for 50 units instead of the usual 100 when they come. I won’t be comin’ back here but I’ll know from ‘em if you cheat ‘em and…” He narrowed his eyes at the madame before continuing, “…if you keep anymore slaves.”

The madame pursed her lips but nodded too enthusiastically for his liking. He turned his back to her and grabbed the Terran woman’s elbow again before starting down the hallway. Whistling once he smiled at the yelp from the sneeper they left behind as his Yaka arrow returned to it’s holster. When they walk out into the cold air he looked to the woman next to him and was glad he had her put his duster on before leaving her room. Not only was it snowing but most of his men were outside with the pleasure bots. He caught the eye of his first mate, Kraglin, a young Xandarian proven to be smarter and more resourceful than most of the rest of his clan put together. Kraglin fell into step next to him as he started the trek back to the Eclector with the woman he now owned. Rolling his eyes he could only imagine what Stakar would've had to say to that.

“Kraglin, the bots are now 50 units for the crew. Make sure that madame don’t charge ‘em any mor’n’that, ya got me?” Yondu told the young man.

“Yessir Cap’n,” Kraglin instantly replied then headed back to where he’d come from.

Yondu continued on to the Eclector and straight back to the captains quarters. He hadn’t really thought about what to do with the Terran woman but he realized she’d have to remain in his quarters to be safe. When they got inside he hit the keypad next to the door to lock it so only the crew with the access code could get in. At that point he let go of the woman’s arm and moved down the short hallway into the main area of his quarters and straight to the counter where he kept various alcohols from all over the galaxies. Pouring himself a small glass of dark blue liquid, a strong alcohol from Knowhere, he downed it in one drink before turning to face the woman who was looking around the large cluttered area. She still held his duster closed in front of her. When her green eyes met his it was with a million questions he wasn’t sure he had any answers to.


	2. Why did you bring me here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yondu brings the Terran woman back to the Eclector and does something that shocks her.

Fiona watched as the blue man walked away from her and over to a counter set in the wall with various bottles containing what she knew to be alcohol from her time at the Iron Lotus. He poured some liquid from one of the bottles into a glass, tipped his head back and downed it, then turned back to her. She wanted to ask a million questions but she knew from experience in the last year dealing with aliens of all kinds that wasn't always the best of ideas. One thing she had been sure of was that this man might be gruff and ruthless but he wasn't going to hurt her. He'd had plenty of opportunity, paid to have her, but never touched her. Maybe she was wrong. After all he did own her now and she really had no where else to go. Earth wasn't an option anymore after the scientists altered her so drastically. She didn't exactly tell the blue man all of the alterations that were made to her, just the one that everyone deemed so damn important.

She started out of her thoughts when she felt a warm hand on her neck. His red eyes held hers and he held up the control unit that the brothel madame had used to keep her in line. It didn't take long for her to figure out that fighting tooth and nail really did her no good. All the madame had to do was enter something on that damn unit and all control over her own body was gone. Now he had that same control over her.

"Girlie, I ain't gonna hurt ya, I jus' need to find th'right code to release that collar," his deep gruff voice said. Strange, he sounded like he was from Alabama, and she knew that wasn't right at all.

Fiona realized she must have given him a concerned look when he waggled the control in front of her face. She sighed and met his eyes, "I didn't believe you'd actually physically harm me but..." What he said suddenly dawned on her, "Wait a minute. You're removing the collar?"

He looked up at her from his fiddling with the control and smiled showing his sharp, somewhat crooked, white and metal teeth, "Yeah, y'got a problem with that?"

Her eyes went wide and her heart sank, what did he intend to do with her then. She'd heard a lot of stories about what aliens did with slaves they bought. Sometimes they were used like she was in the brothel, sometimes they were made to fight, sometimes killed for fun, sometimes used for labor, and sometimes they were dinner. "I'm not dinner am I?" She practically whispered.

He rolled his eyes and gave her an exasperated look, "Y'ain't even met him yet and ya already sound like Peter. No, y'ain't dinner."

"Then why bring me here?"

The blue man smiled as he keyed something on the control unit and she felt the collar release from her neck making her gasp as the barbed needles that were imbedded in her skin pulled through. He lifted the collar away from her and tossed it to the ground before stomping on it then looked at the wounds on her neck. "Think I got some’m fer those."

She shook her head at him, "Don't need it, they'll heal in a few seconds."

His eyes narrowed at her but when he looked back to her neck he looked surprised.

"I didn't exactly tell you all of the alterations that were made to me," she said on an exhale.

"Didn't figure ya did girlie. As to why I brought ya here. Told ya, Ravagers don't deal in slaves. This one especially," he practically snarled the last few words.

"I'm afraid I don't know what a Ravager is," she admitted.

The man paused for a second then moved back to the cabinet where he set his glass earlier, "Peter calls us space pirates." He grabbed her ownership papers and what looked like a long stick, bent over them with his back to her, then turned and handed them to her. "There. Yer not a slave n'more darlin'."

She looked down at the papers in her hand, the smashed collar on the floor, and then up to the blue man in front of her. "Why?" Fiona didn't want to sound ungrateful but she met this man less than two hours ago in a brothel where he paid to have sex with her. Humans barely stood up for others they knew well let alone complete strangers.

He stiffened and put his back to her while pouring another round of the dark blue liquid he drank before. "I know what it means to be a slave girlie."

"Fiona," she told him softly.

Turning he frowned at her, "What's'a Fee yown uh?"

His long drawl of her name made her laugh, "Me. That's my name."

He smiled at that, "Perty. Mine's Yondu."

"I don't have anywhere to go Yondu. Or any units, I think you call them out here, to get anywhere" she explained.

Passing her the glass of blue liquid he poured himself another one, "Y'do. I didn't free ya jus' to leave ya stranded with nowhere's to go. And those ten thousand units r'yers."

Her eyes widen in shock, "Why? Why would you do that for someone you don't even know?"

"Keep askin' and I might change m' mind," he muttered under his breath with a shake of his head. "Let's jus' say I made a mess o' things and I'm tryin' t'do what was done fer me without muckin' it up."

She still didn't understand but she wasn't going to argue anymore. He lifted his glass to his lips and downed the drink while she sniffed it. It smelled a lot like jet fuel. Shrugging she downed hers as well then started coughing uncontrollably while her eyes burned and watered. Yondu stood across from her laughing until she shot him an annoyed look and surprisingly he stiffled his laughter before setting his glass down.

"Wha'd'ja do before ya were taken from Terra?"

"I was an engineer and a paramedic," she told him as she shrugged off her backpack and waggled it toward him. "Is there somewhere I could possibly put this down and change my clothes? I've got a few things in here."

He looked at the doors to the left and right of the cabinet he was standing at then up a set of stairs at the back of the room to two more doors and pointed to the far door on the right. "Yer room."

She started at that, wasn't this his quarters? How many rooms were in here? "Okay, I don't..."

Yondu held a hand up, "Ya need to stay in 'ere so's the crew don't have easy access to ya. We're Ravagers, the boys are rough, and I don't want 'em gettin' any ideas."

Rather than assure him she was capable of taking care of herself, which she doubted he'd believe since she'd been kidnapped, scientifically altered, and made a slave, she made her way to the room he'd pointed out. She was actually pleasantly surprised when she got to the door which slid open for her and she walked in to find what looked like cabin out of a _Star Trek_ movie. There was a large bed built into the wall in front of her with a table and two chairs to her left, and two more doors to the right. When she stood in front of the closest door it slid open revealing a large bathroom (thankfully there was a toilet here she knew how to use!) with a shower and another door at the side which opened to reveal a large closet. She set her backpack down in the closet and rummaged through the clothes she had in there. Pulling out a pair of black leggings and a teal green sweater she laid Yondu's duster over one of the shelves in front of her and pulled the gauzy gown over her head and tossed it to the floor. She'd forgotten she wasn't wearing any underwear and dug in the backpack for panties and a bra which she put on then got dressed. Unfortunately she didn't have any shoes except for the high heeled slippers she wore at the brothel. The boots she'd been wearing when she was taken were long gone and all she managed to salvage were the clothes in her pack and her medical kit. There were socks in there somewhere, digging through the pack she found a pair and at least put those on her feet. It would have to do until she could get some boots. Looking around the closet she realized she'd have plenty of space for anything she might acquire. Nodding to herself she picked up Yondu's duster and walked out of the closet, only then realizing as she entered and exited any room lights turned on and off as she did so just like the doors opened and closed. Making her way back into the bedroom she went to the other door which slid open and realized this was a balcony of sorts that allowed her to access to see the terrain of Contraxia and the snowfall. That might be nice when they were in space or on a new planet. She backed out of that area and turned to look at the bed and wondered how she was going to keep anyone out. There really wasn't anything else for her to do so she went back to the cabin door which slid open to reveal Yondu doing something to the keypad next to it.

Fiona offered his duster to him which he shook his head at while he worked on the keypad. Seeming to be satisfied by something he stood back and waved his hand at it, "Okay honey, now ya gotta put in a code that ya'kin remember. It'll let ya lock yer door so no one 'cept me can get in. Ya use the same code on any a'the holopads on the ship."

She looked at the pad which showed English letters and numbers somehow, "How can I read this?"

Yondu narrowed his eyes at her, "Ya have a universal translator don'cha?"

"I think so, there's something imbedded behind my ear that I was told is a translator," she shrugged her shoulders while thinking on it. "But I could never read anything in the brothel or understand the madame except when you were with me."

"She were speakin' Xandarian when I's there. Bet she set your translator to not pick up certain languages," he grumbled and shook his head. "Tha's why she tried t'say ya never said no."

Her fingers smashed the letters and numbers she was inputting on the...holopad he called it...and she gritted her teeth. "As soon as I realized what I was there for I screamed no every chance I got. Learned the hard way what that damn collar did. Fought every time until that collar disabled me." She rounded on Yondu who actually took a step back and gave her a wary look as she got up in his face, "I said no." Turning she tried to stomp away but stockinged feet didn't make as satisfying of a stomp so she huffed and walked quickly.

"Where're yer boots?"

That brought her up short when she remembered the gown and shoes in her closet and she made her way back to it with Yondu following behind her. Picking up the items she thrust them at him along with his duster and headed back out of the room, "Would you burn those please?"

"A'right. But where a'yer boots?" He asked again in a tone that he was probably used to prompting an immediate response.

She continued her march down the stairs to the main area of the quarters, "I honestly don't know Yondu. They were lost somewhere between me being a lab rat and a sex toy. Those ridiculous things in your hands are the only shoes I have and I AM NOT WEARING THEM ANYMORE!" Honestly, Fiona wasn't sure why she was so angry all of a sudden other than the fact that this was the first time in a year that she'd been allowed to feel anything and it was all hitting her at once. Yondu didn't do anything to her, in fact she should be groveling at his feet and giving him anything he wanted for the mere fact that he freed her.

"Now ya listen t'me Fiona..." Yondu started, still drawling out the syllables of her name, with a finger pointed at her.

Fiona huffed out a loud exasperated breath and raised her hands to cover her face, "Yondu! Please! I am upset, lost, scared, and have no idea what you want from me. I've spent the last year being poked, prodded, injected, operated on, fucked, and I..."

"Yondu?" Fiona heard a male child's voice behind them and when she turned she sees there's a little, human, boy standing beside one of the doors near the stairs holding a worn brown teddy bear and wearing what look like Starman pajamas.


	3. Well that went well…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiona meets Peter and Yondu has an internal debate.

Yondu groaned when he saw Peter standing outside of his room. The boy had been asleep but he should have known the yelling would wake the kid up. “Yeah Pete?”

“Why are you yelling? Who is that?” The boy asked lifting the hand holding the bear Yondu had given him to his sleepy eyes and started rubbing them.

“I’m Fiona.” Yondu watched as she kneeled in front of the boy with a genuine smile on her face. “You’re Peter?”

The kid nodded and yawned, “Why are you yelling at Yondu?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and stood there watching the two of them while waiting for her answer. The boy asked a good question, he had no idea why the woman was yelling at him either.

Fiona looked up to him and kept his gaze while speaking quietly to Peter, “I’m not really yelling at Yondu sweetie, I’m just upset and a little scared. Sometimes adults yell when they don’t know how to work through what they’re feeling.”

The boy hugged the bear to his chest, “Better not yell at him in front of the crew. And make sure you call him Captain, not Yondu, when they’re around.”

“I’ll make sure to remember that,” she told him quietly with a smile.

“Are you from Earth? Uh…Terra?” Peter looked up to Yondu with a squint and he smiled down at the boy.

“I am.”

“Are you staying here with us?” His voice sounded hopeful.

“If the Captain has work for me then yes,” Fiona told him.

“Cool.”

She moved in closer to the boy and picked him up off his feet, “You think you can go back to bed if we stop yelling?”

Peter nodded and yawned again and Fiona disappeared behind his door with him in her arms.

Yondu breathed a sigh of relief. He barely had any idea how to deal with a kid on the ship let alone a woman. This was turning into a real bad idea really fast. This was a Ravager ship not a family transport but he’d just have to figure it out. He sure as hell wasn’t giving Peter over to Ego and if he took him back to Terra eventually Ego would send someone else there to pick him up. And Fiona, well, he wasn’t sure what the hell that was about. What he told her was true, he knew what it was like to be a slave. After his falling out with Stakar and exile from the Ravager clans for bringing Ego his children he realized he’d sacrificed his morals for greed. Sure the money was damn good, but it wore on his conscience and his heart what happened to those kids. He spent twenty years as a Kree battle slave before Stakar freed him, gave him a place among the Ravagers, and gave him a purpose. Greed clouded that purpose and got him exiled. Sure, a Ravagers main pursuit was thievery, but they did other jobs too. Sometimes some of the clans even helped people. For the right price. There wasn’t anything wrong with wanting to be better. He’d always been hard, ruthless, and he thought unfeeling until Ego admitted that while his children hadn’t ‘hurt’ per se, they had been killed when they couldn’t fulfill his purpose. Something broke in Yondu at hearing that and he decided before the next pick up that he wasn’t going to bring the kid back to Ego or accept any more jobs from him.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he looked at the stuff Fiona had shoved in his hands. He dropped his duster onto the deeply cushioned couch set back on the far wall away from his counter bar and took the rest of the things she shoved at him out the door of the Captain’s quarters. Walking the halls of the Eclector he headed down to the bowels of the ship and the furnace room down there where he shoved the items in his hands into the fire and watched them quickly burn away. Turning back on his heels he returned to his quarters to find Fiona sitting on the couch using his duster as a blanket. She gave him a defiant look as she burrowed further under it making him smirk.

“It’s warm, deal with it,” she muttered. “I promised Peter we wouldn’t yell anymore.”

“I heard’ya,” he told her. He wasn’t at all used to the idea of having a woman in his quarters. Or on the ship. Usually his encounters with women were limited to meeting his sexual needs or whatever deal he was trying to get done. Now he had to figure out how to safely incorporate one into his all male crew after barely getting them to accept a 7-year-old Terran kid. Pinching his fingers on the bridge of his nose he walked over to the counter again. This time he chose a milder drink and poured a glass for each of them and walked over to where Fiona sat where he handed her one of the glasses before sitting down a few feet from her. Fiona sniffed this drink too before taking a small sip. He grinned a little to himself, either it was a quirk of hers or she’d picked it up over the time since she’d been taken from Terra as some sort of self-preservation measure. “Y’was an engineer?”

Nodding she stared into her glass and he could see her shivering a little under his duster, she wasn’t kidding when she implied she was cold.

For some strange reason he found himself wanting to offer her to cuddle into him but he shook the impulse off, “Y’kin work on engine’s and…” He waved his hand around to indicate the ship and noticed she sat up straighter on the couch with a hopeful look on her face.

“I can. Oh my god!” She gasped, “I can be useful again. I can pay you back for what you did for me!”

“M’not worried ‘bout ya payin’ me back,” Yondu almost couldn’t believe it was him saying that. “But I need someone that can help Kraglin with repairs and maintenance round here, I got too much a’ my own work to be much help t’im and he’s got that and First Mate duties. Most a’ the crew is muscle and thieves, decent pilots and fighters, few knows tech, fer the most part they’re dumber than bilge snipe. What’s a parry medic?”

Fiona smiled and ducked her nose under the collar of his duster, if he didn’t know better he’d almost think she was smelling it. “Paramedic Yondu. Don’t you have healers out here? That’s what I did. Emergency medical care.”

How did he get so lucky to find a woman who could not only help with ship repair and maintenance but also take care of the crew when they inevitably hurt themselves? “Need that too.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You sure you didn’t just bring me on board to be a surrogate mom to that little orphan boy?”

He shook his head and downed the last of his drink. To be honest he hadn’t even considered it. Peter was HIS responsibility.

“You gonna tell me how he got here or do I need to be worried that you roam the galaxy kidnapping innocent women and children and taking them to scientists to experiment on?” Fiona asked in a quiet even tone.

That did piss him off and he turned on her, but kept his voice quiet, “Woman shit talk like that ain’t gonna put ya on my good side. An’ the answer is no to both questions.”

Her expression softened, “Then why is he here?”

Yondu had been asking himself that for the six months Peter had been on the ship and still didn’t have a satisfying answer. He could lie and say Peter could fit into spaces the rest of the crew couldn’t so he was good for thieving. Or he could say it was guilt for Ego killing the kids before Peter. The truth was a little of both of those and having Peter around, teaching him things, having the young boy look up to him, felt good even if the kid was a pain in his ass a lot of the time. True he’d taken Kraglin under his wing as well, the First Mate was young, but he had a good ten Terran years on the boy. Yondu sighed and looked at Fiona, “Ya don’t tell the boy this, y’understand me?”

She nodded.

“His father paid me to find his children ‘round the galaxies, but I found out he was killin’ ‘em cause they weren’t fulfillin’ his purpose. Pete was the last job I took from him and I’ain’t lettin’ Ego get‘em,” Yondu stated firmly and almost jumped out of his skin when he felt her hand on his knee. No female had ever tried to comfort him before and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He curled his lip and looked over at her but she didn’t move her hand. “Listen, we’ll talk more t’morrow ‘bout duties, the ship, and all that but there’s a few things ya need ta know. These quarters ‘r the only place yer secure fer now. Only one’s a’ the crew with access asides me are Kraglin and Tullk. Only one asides you with access to yer room if ya lock it is me. Kraglin’s room is in these quarters, one closest to the main door. Ya need something and I’m not ‘round get Kraglin first, Tullk second. Ya got me?”

“Yes sir, Captain sir.”

Yondu narrowed his eyes at her again, “Smart ass.”

She smirked at him, “Yes sir.”

Rolling his eyes to the ceiling he wondered what the hell cursed him with not one but two smart assed Terrans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter of 'intro' stuff and then I'll be moving on. Prompts are welcome if anyone has anything they'd like to see. Just an FYI, I am not mechanical (I am medical) so when I write any ship fixing bits it's gonna be total fiction. lol Does everyone like the switching POV between Fiona and Yondu? Does it need to be more specific as to who's POV it is?


	4. Who are you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last of the 'intro' this time from Kraglin's POV.

Kraglin knew it was later than he and the rest of the crew should have made it back on board the Eclector but with the Captain not there to stand on top of them he let the time slide a little bit. The crew all cheered when they found out the drop in units on the pleasure bots. It wasn’t like they couldn’t all afford it. Captain was hard on them but he was fair and the crew all had plenty of units to go around. Though some spent them more wisely than others. Taserface for one was always blowing units on gambling and drinks and stirring up trouble. Eventually they’d have to deal with him harshly but for now he was decent muscle for the bigger jobs.

When he got to the Captain’s quarters he found the outer door locked which wasn’t all that unusual since Peter had been on board. Some of the crew had wanted to eat him when they picked him up after they learned they weren’t taking him to Ego so Captain had taken to locking him in when either Captain, Kraglin, or Tullk weren’t around. Kraglin hadn’t been too hot on the idea of a kid on board but truth be told he wasn’t much more than a kid himself and Captain had taken him from his own miserable situation. Kraglin was thankful he’d made it aboard the Eclector rather than another Ravager ship. Somehow Yondu (he still had a hard time calling the Captain that even in his head) had a habit of picking up the unwanted and giving them a purpose.

Fumbling with his entry code he finally managed to punch it in, he wasn’t all that drunk, and walked into the large cabin. Before he made it too far into the room he noticed someone lying on the couch to the right. Thinking Peter might have had a nightmare and didn’t want to wake up Yondu he went to check on him.

“What the…” He started in a whisper when he looked down to copper colored hair on top of a definitely feminine head. It was the woman Yondu had walked out of the Iron Lotus with.

Green eyes blinked open and narrowed at him, “You Kraglin?”

“Yep. Who r’you?” He countered quietly.

The woman sat up and it was then he realized she was using Captain’s duster as a blanket. “Fiona.”

Kraglin cringed, she was speaking in a normal tone and Yondu had the hearing of, well he didn’t know what, but the Centaurian could hear a screw head pop from the other side of the ship. Holding a finger in front of his lips he shot his eyes up toward the Captain’s door, “Shhhhhhh, Cap’n can hear a pin drop a click away.”

She smiled at him and shook her head, “He’ll be fine. If he wants to grump about it he can yell at me some more tomorrow. Or later today I guess.”

He looked around then down at her, “What’r you doin’ down here?”

“Couldn’t sleep in my room,” she lifted her arm and pointed over her head to the room above her furthest from the stairs. “I kept waking up thinking someone was coming in.”

“No one but Cap’n, me, and Tullk have access to this cabin. Pretty sure Cap’n wouldn’t let anyone else but him access your room.”

Fiona shrugged at him, “That’s what he told me, it’ll just take me awhile to get used to the idea that my room doesn’t have a revolving door.”

Kraglin narrowed his eyes in confusion at her statement, he had no idea what a revolving door was.

“You should get some sleep Kraglin, I have the feeling we’re going to have a lot to discuss once Yondu is awake and barking orders,” she grinned at him on a yawn.

Nodding his head he moved to his own room and went to bed wondering what the hell Captain had done this time.

 

It felt like too short of a time later that he heard a sharp rap at his door and a booming voice, “Kraglin! Get’cha ass up and out here.”

“Yes sir Cap’n!” Kraglin automatically responded as he jumped from his bed and started to pull on his clothes.

Once he was dressed he walked out to the main cabin to find Peter sitting on the couch with a holopad in his hands and his headphones on his ears. Yondu and Fiona were sitting at the back of the room where a large table and chairs sat with some holoscreens hovering above the table.

“I heard y’all met when ya came in las’ night,” Yondu drawled at him when he took a seat across from them.

“Yes sir,” Kraglin swallowed hoping Captain wouldn’t have anything to say about the extra hour he’d given the crew away from the ship.

When Yondu’s red eyes met his Kraglin knew that Yondu knew and he braced for the tongue lashing. “Calm down Krags, I ain’t gonna reprimand ya for letting the crew have a little extra time. Yer the First Mate cause I trust ya to get shit done and do what’s right.”

Kraglin let out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding and nodded.

“That bein’ said, ya need help with ship maintenance and repairs…”

“But Cap’n…”

Yondu held up a blue hand and pursed his lips, he really didn’t like being interrupted but sometimes Kraglin’s mouth and youth got the best of him.

“Kraglin, ya do a great job, but ya got other duties too. Ya can’t do it all yerself and there really ain’t none other a’the crew able to help with anything more than basics. Fiona here…” Kraglin noted Yondu drew out the syllables of the woman’s name when he said it and grinned just slightly. The Captain had a habit of drawing out things he was fond of like that. “Krags, ya listenin’ ta me?”

Shaking his head he brought his eyes back to the Captain’s, “Yes sir, sorry sir.”

Captain gave him a slightly annoyed look and he noticed Fiona just sitting back and observing their exchange.

“Fiona here was an engineer on Terra and she can help ya with the ship,” Yondu finished making Kraglin sit up and take interest.

“Really? You was an engineer?” He looked to the woman. “I mean, ship’s dirty, you’re gonna get greasy if you’re helping me.”

She bounced her shoulders and smiled at him, “That’s okay. I didn’t go into engineering to stay clean.”

Granted Kraglin hadn’t met a lot of women outside of brothels or bars and the Ravager females he knew didn’t get their hands dirty on engines and ship repairs, so he was a little skeptical. “Okay.”

“She was also a parry medic…”

Fiona laughed at that, “Yondu I told you, it’s paramedic.”

The Captain gave her a hard look and drummed his fingers on the table. Yondu had a short fuse and Kraglin had learned in the few years he’d been on the ship how not to light that fuse.

She just rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, “Go ahead look at me like that. Giving me a scary look isn’t going to scare me.”

“Girlie we’re goin’ t’have a discussion bout yer smart mouth,” Yondu snarled at her making Kraglin just a little afraid for her.

“Dude seriously?” She gave the Captain an annoyed look of her own, “I know not to mouth off at you in front of the rest of the crew. I had a Captain and a Lieutenant and all of that in my squad back home. But if I can’t speak freely when it’s just the two of us, or the three of us then you need to tell me now.”

Kraglin watched Yondu think on that for a minute before he responded, “Long as yer not insubordinate in front a’the rest a’the crew. Kraglin, she got medical experience so we needs ta get the med bay in order too.”

“I can help with that,” Fiona offers and Kraglin nods.

“Listen Krags, I know this is gonna be another issue with a lot a’the crew. Most a’them didn’t take well to Peter. Not sure how they’ll take to a woman bein’ on board. I don’t want rumors spreadin’ and so you knows she ain’t a sex slave and th’crew needs to know she’s off limits,” Yondu told him carefully.

Kraglin’s eyes were shifting between Fiona who looked upset to Yondu who looked angry. “Yes sir.”

Fiona looked between them before sighing, “He probably needs to know.”

He sat there for the next hour while Fiona relayed what happened the night before and then told them both about her alterations. The nanobots implanted in her various systems healed her automatically, she couldn’t catch any disease, she’d been sterilized, and she aged more slowly than other Terrans. They weren’t anything spectacular by his way of thinking, other than the healing that is. She also relayed in more detail her engineering training. Apparently, she worked on large craft meant to launch into space. She also explained more about what a paramedics training entailed and what they did. Fiona then also tried to assure them that despite what happened to her in the last year she was capable of handling herself if she weren’t surprised and controlled artificially. Kraglin had to admit that if Yondu was going to bring a woman on board to be part of the crew she certainly seemed the best choice.

“A’right now, Kraglin ya show her the ship, once yer done show her the med bay so she can get an idea what she needs fer crew injuries. Mess hall fer breakfast first though and we’ll tell th’crew. I’m gonna get Pete cleaned up and take him to the mess after,” Yondu instructed.

“Yes sir Captain,” Kraglin and Fiona said at the same time.

Yondu’s eyes narrowed at them both, “Don’cha both go getting’ smart mouthed on me. And you…” He pointed at Fiona with some menace, “Don’t think jus’ because I freed ya that I’m soft on ya. I’ll punish ya just like I do the rest a’the crew if’n ya get out a’line. Ya got me?”

“I understand perfectly Yondu,” Fiona told him as she stood up and Kraglin followed the Captain’s eyes to her feet which he noted were bare.

“Actually Kraglin, take ‘er to the Tailor first, get ‘er some boots, leathers, and jumps,” Yondu instructed and walked away to where Peter sat.

“You got socks you can put on?” Kraglin asked her, “This here’s the only cabin with carpet, rest of the ship is metal. It’s cold and you could get cut.”

The woman pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, “I think I’ve already established we don’t need to worry about injuries to me.”

“Yeah, well I don’t need Cap’n yellin’ at me coz your feet got cut up on the grate to the Tailor’s quarters,” he tossed back at her.

She huffed at him and moved to the stairs pausing when Yondu called her name.

“Ya needs ta remember too, Kraglin might be younger ‘n you but he’s First Mate for a reason. Punishment for insubordination extends to you insuborinatin’ him too. Got me?” Yondu asked her seriously.

Kraglin watched Fiona look between the two of them and shake her head, “Yondu, stop worrying.” She turned away from them then and hurried up the stairs to her room.

“Shit wh’the hell did I get us into?” Captain muttered making Kraglin half snicker.

“I think it’ll be nice having her around,” he told the angry blue man who leveled him with a glare making Kraglin stand up straighter.

“I’m ready Yondu,” Peter came out of his room and stood next to their Captain. “Morning Krags.”

“Mornin’ kid.”

Yondu pointed once at Kraglin before gently pushing Peter to the door and out of the cabin. Kraglin finally let out the breath he’d been holding yet again. It was going to be an interesting day to say the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any thoughts, comments, or requests are always welcome. :o)


	5. Settling in...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiona loses her temper and is confined to her room.

Over the next month Fiona settled in to her new duties as Ship’s Mechanic and Medic without much incident. The crew wasn’t happy to hear a woman had been added to the crew and was off limits to them. Kraglin had pointed out a few specific crew members to avoid if he, Yondu, or Tullk weren’t around. Tullk, she found out, was essentially Yondu’s second under Kraglin, and while he tended to be rougher than Kraglin she found she quite liked him. He reminded her a lot of the firefighters she had volunteered with in her squad.

Kraglin had given her a wrist com that first day so that she could communicate with them as needed but they still insisted she have one of them with her anytime she was outside of the Captain’s quarters. While she recognized that she was at risk she knew she also needed to show them that she wasn’t weak and she didn’t know how to do that without starting a fight with one of the crew. That was something she wasn’t about to do. One, just because she healed on her own didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell. Two, she knew she wasn’t a match for some of the crew and picking on the wrong one could seriously backfire on her. Three, that just wasn’t the kind of person she was. A few of them went out of their way to verbally pick on her and she ignored them for the most part. It wasn’t worth her time or effort to engage stupidity and wasn’t going to win her any real respect.

She had the med bay mostly outfitted and stocked for any injuries that occurred and she had even talked Yondu into a minor surgical pod so they didn’t have to stop at the nearest planet with healers every time one of the crew had some surgical issue. In the last month most of what she dealt with were cuts and burns, and one broken arm from a fight that she had laid into Oblo about. For some reason he and Retch were constantly fighting over one thing or another and their last fight ended in said broken arm. It didn’t take long for Fiona to conclude she lived on a ship full of teenage boys. That being said, she was actually happier than she had been in a long time, even happier than on Earth.

Bringing herself back to the present she continued scooting herself backward into the engine access shaft where she was inspecting, cleaning, and lubing small parts that rarely saw any attention. It amazed her that some of the engine parts hadn’t seized up. Kraglin did an amazing job keeping things running but there was so much gunk all over everything that certain things were sluggish. While she hadn’t necessarily said anything to Yondu or Kraglin it was her goal to have the engine completely serviced in the next few weeks. While she was cleaning a particularly nasty rotor she heard her name being bellowed down below. Lifting her wrist com to her face she keyed in the code that would let her speak to Yondu.

“Captain, no disrespect but I’m kinda in the middle of one of the access hatches and it’s going to take me a bit to get back down there. Is your need urgent?” She learned quickly that even though Yondu still got irritated, as long as she explained why she couldn’t make herself front and center within seconds he was more reasonable.

“Kid’s got blood comin’ out his nose, can’t get it ta stop,” Yondu’s frantic voice came over the com.

“Stand by,” she returned and moved as quickly as she could to where the access ladder was. When she got there she rolled to her stomach and rather than taking the ladder rung by rung she slid down. Yondu’d be pissed but he’d deal.

When she dropped to the ground she found Yondu standing there with a crying and bloody faced child who looked like someone had hit him in the face. She knew it wasn’t Yondu, so something happened and poor Peter was probably too upset to tell him. Picking the boy up in her arms she reached back to her pocket to grab her clean rag there and realized it was rolled into her jumpsuit which she’d unzipped to her waist and tied the sleeves around her front. Yondu gave her a pissy look, he had warned her several times to keep her jump zipped when she was working, but it was hot so she had worn a tank top under it. He clued in despite his anger at her and anxiety over Peter’s bloody nose and unfurled the rolled fabric to grab her rag and hand it to her. She took it from him and looked in Peter’s scared eyes.

“Honey, this might hurt but I’m going to hold this rag over your nose and pinch it. I want you to lean your head forward on mine while I walk you to med bay, okay,” she told him.

“K,” was all the child said through his tears.

She did as she explained and headed to med bay with Yondu striding angrily next to her. “Do you know what happened?”

“He could’n tell me,” Yondu snapped, this time she wasn’t taking it personal.

Fiona looked to Peter who had fresh tears rolling down his ruddy cheeks, and the rag she held was pretty bloody. She’d have to wait until Peter was numbed to ask.

They got to med bay and she set him on the floating exam table where she showed Yondu how to hold the rag and moved about the room gathering the supplies she needed. Fortunately fixing things like a broken nose in space was much easier than on Earth considering the technology was so much more advanced. She placed a bleeder button in each of the boys nostrils and waited for the blood flow to stop while she sent Yondu to the storage room to get a pain killer from the locked cabinet there. Once the blood flow stopped she examined Peter‘s nose, definitely broken, someone had hit him.

“Honey, can you tell me what happened?” She asked him while she applied the small device to his face that would both numb the area and straighten the break.

“T…Taserface t…took my b…bear,” the boy cried while the device did it’s work. “When I t…tried to get it b…back he held it so I co…couldn’t reach it. I hit him in the k…knee, and he p…punched me in the n…nose.”

Fiona chewed her bottom lip and when the device beeped that it completed it's bone setting cycle she removed it from the boy’s face just as Yondu walked back into the room. “Hey Peter, what do you think about Yondu taking you to the mess hall and having him get you some Xandarian ice cream?” In truth, it wasn’t really ice cream, but it tasted like it and Peter had no reason to know any different.

Peter looked to the blue man hopefully, “Could we? Please Yondu?”

“Sure boy,” Yondu replied softly and handed Fiona the pain killer.

She took it from him and read the label. Fortunately, it was in Xandarian which her translator allowed her to read. Doing a quick calculation in her head she handed the bottle back to Yondu, “Give him one tablet after he eats his ice cream and then put him to bed. He’ll be asleep pretty quick after that.”

“A’right,” Yondu helped the boy down from the table and started to walk out of the door before turning back to her. “He tell ya what happened?”

She nodded at him.

“Y’n’me gotta talk after he’s asleep.”

“We will Yondu,” she told him calmly. “I promise we will.”

His eyes narrowed at her but he turned back to Peter who had grabbed his hand and was pulling him along with him, excited at the prospect of ice cream.

Once Yondu was out of ear shot she lifted her wrist com and entered Kraglin’s code.

“Yeah,” came the First Mate’s reply.

“Hey Kraglin, you know where Taserface is?”

“Bay 7. Why y’lookin’ for him for Fiona?” Kraglin responded with some concern in his tone.

“He has something I need,” she replied in as neutral of a tone as she could manage while she began making her way to Bay 7.

“Fiona, I told you not to go near him ‘less me, Cap’n, or Tullk is with you,” Kraglin’s voice cracked slightly.

Taking a deep breath she had to control her tone to keep from snapping at the First Mate, “Yondu is in the mess hall with Peter, so you leave him out of this. If you or Tullk want to meet me in Bay 7 be my guest.” With that last statement she closed the comm line so she couldn’t hear any response from Kraglin.

Just before she entered Bay 7 she heard Taserface’s loud voice telling various members of the crew where to move crates of supplies they had just onloaded. When she actually stepped into the Bay she found him sitting to the side on top of a crate with Peter’s teddy bear sitting next to him.

“Taserface, I’ll need that bear back,” she deadpanned and stopped about ten feet away from him.

The man smiled viciously and picked it up to examine it then waggled it in the air at her, “Come ‘n take it.”

The crew members working around them stopped what they were doing and turned to look at them.

“You asked for it asshat,” Fiona snapped at him and stalked his way.

He stood up to his full height, probably figuring she’d be intimidated by him, which she wasn’t. When she went to grab for the bear he lifted it out of her reach and she responded by kicking him in the knee just as Kraglin and Tullk both skidded to a stop behind them.

Kraglin looked at her wide eyed and started to yell. “Fiona what r’you…”

Taserface went to punch her in the face just like he had Peter. Only she was counting on him to respond that same way, he was predictable, and she ducked out of the way as he swung then reached up and grabbed his arm which she ratcheted behind his back until he cried out. Fiona jammed it up a little bit more for emphasis and reached up to dig her fingers into a particularly vulnerable spot to his species in his shoulder.

“Pick up the bear and walk to the mess hall NOW or I break it,” she ground out.

Surprisingly they made it to the mess hall without any further protest from the man in front of her. Poor Kraglin looked like he was going to have a heart attack and she caught Tullk grinning when he thought Kraglin wasn’t looking. When they walked through the mess hall door she saw Peter sitting across the room with Yondu at one of the tables while he finished his ice cream.

“Give the boy back his bear and apologize,” she said into Taserface’s back.

“I ain’t…” he started to growl at her and she pushed his arm up further until she heard the joint start to pop. “Fine! Fine!”

She saw Yondu’s eyes widen when he realized she was behind Taserface and poor Peter looked terrified as the man walked up to him but the look changed to wariness when the man handed his bear to him.

“I’m sorry kid.”

Fiona was torn between letting his arm go or just breaking it anyway but the look of absolute livid rage on Yondu’s face stopped her. She knew he’d be mad at her for going off on her own to deal with this and decided adding insult to injury wasn’t the way to go in that moment so she let Taserface go. He stepped away from her and turned to face her with an ominous snarl while he rubbed his sore shoulder.

“This ain’t done between you an’ me.”

“Go ahead Taserface, make my day,” she returned.

“ENOUGH!” Yondu bellowed from across the table. Pointing first at Taserface he narrowed his eyes and gestured to Peter, “This were yer doin’?”

“Yes sir,” the man answered and stood ramrod straight with his hand still clasped over his shoulder.

Yondu looked to Fiona then and moved around the table to stand in front of the two, “An’ya decided to handle this without talkin’ ta me first?”

Fiona straightened as well, “Yes sir Captain.”

“Taserface ya can load and put away the rest a’the supplies yerself and yer not doing the next job. Don’t ever lay a hand on Peter again, ya got me?” Taserface looked angry but wisely nodded his head and kept his mouth shut. “And Fiona, yer confined to yer room when yer not on duty ‘til further notice. Starting now!” Yondu made a dismissed motion with his hand and Taserface and Fiona left the mess hall headed in opposite directions.

When she made it back to the Captain’s quarters she went to her room and locked the door then sat down at the table with her holopad. She’d been studying the anatomy and physiology of the various species aboard the ship but had yet to find anything on Centaurians which made her wonder if she had heard Kraglin right. It must not have been more than thirty minutes later that she heard her room door slide open. She kept her eyes trained on the holopad in front of her where she was currently studying Hurctarian physiology. When Yondu sat down in the chair opposite her she raised her eyes to see that he was actually smiling at her.

“I ain’t entirely mad at’cha,” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh?”

“Ya handled Taserface pretty well.”

“I was kind of proud that I didn’t break his arm,” she quipped.

He gave her a hard look then, “I nev’r doubted you could handle yerself girlie. But ya gotta know where to draw the line and who NOT to mess with. This ain’t yer Terra and I won’t always be able to protect ya.”

Her heart softened a little bit when she realized Yondu was actually worried about her. “You know if he had broken me I would have healed and pain only lasts so long.”

“That’s what worries me. Ya don’t seem ta care much about yerself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying. Again comments, suggestions, and prompts always welcome. There will be some tender moments between Yondu and Fiona coming up.


	6. Just getting started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Little bit of smut in this chapter but it's mild**  
> Fiona let's herself be vulnerable with Yondu.

“Why do I keep findin’ ya out here when ya should be sleepin’ in yer bed?” Yondu said when he found Fiona asleep on the couch in the main cabin again. He’d been finding her on the couch pretty steadily for the three months she’d been on board the Eclector.

She blinked her eyes open and looked up at him, then sat up while he sat down next to her. At least she wasn’t keeping her distance from him anymore like she was at first and she’d even leaned into him more often than she didn’t while they’d sat together talking. “I have trouble sleeping in there.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and studied her face, she looked bone tired and he wondered if she’d even been sleeping at all. “Why?”

“I keep waking up because I think I hear someone coming in the door,” she replied softly.

Yondu looked upstairs to where her room was and then to the main door of the Captain’s quarters, “Ya don’t feel like that here?”

Fiona nodded and glanced to the main door then back at him, “I do, but I guess it’s not as bad since this is a more open space and all of you would hear if I yelled.”

“Fiona I told ya, the only one with access to yer room asides you is me. R’ya ‘fraid a’me?” He asked, more than a little concern laced his tone. She needed to respect him as the Captain, but he didn’t actually want her to be afraid of him.

She shook her head and put her hand over his heart before leaning into him making said heart pick up a few beats, “No Yondu, as ruthless as you can be, I know I’m safe with you.”

Sitting back on the couch he threw his arm behind her and she curled into him causing some kind of knot in the middle of his chest. What the hells was wrong with him, first the boy, now the woman. “A’right, so wha’s the problem then?”

“I don’t know that you’d understand, but even though I know no one is coming in there to use me my mind hasn’t caught up yet,” she said into his shoulder.

He thought on that for a minute before formulating a response. She had no way of knowing but he actually did understand. For months after Stakar freed him he suffered from the same kind of fears and would wake up sweating and terrified thinking he was still in the slave pens. “You sleepin’ at all?”

“Honestly Yondu?”

Narrowing his eyes at her he gave her a displeased look which just made her roll her eyes at him. He found he actually liked the fact that she wasn’t intimidated by him and spoke her mind or expressed herself as she saw fit when they were alone.

“No Yondu, I’m not. I’ve probably had 3 or 4 nights where I’ve been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time.”

Yondu sighed heavily as he stood up and held a hand out to her, “C’mon.”

Fiona gave him a curious smile but put her hand in his and let him lead her up the stairs to his door. When they were inside he hesitated a minute while she looked around the neat space. He motioned to the pile of furs on his bed, “Go on, get in.”

“Yondu…”

It was his turn to role his eyes at her, “Seems to help the boy when he wakes up scared.”

“Oh, okay,” she actually seemed disappointed, but she crawled into his bed and pulled the furs over her.

Shit, he didn’t think first what seeing her in his bed would do to him. Too late now he thought and climbed in beside her. She scooted closer to him and worked her way under his arm making him chuckle. He was quiet then while she buried her face into his shoulder and he felt her tears start to soak the cloth of his shirt. Putting his arms even tighter around her he held her close until she fell asleep. If any of the Ravagers other than Kraglin saw him now they’d think he was soft. Maybe he was a little, for this woman, and the boy he’d started to think of as his. And even Kraglin who he had thought of as a son for some time if he were being honest with himself. Suddenly it dawned on him that Stakar had treated him the exact same way. Like family.

 

He woke up, early as always, with Fiona’s back to his front and a raging lust. When he started to work his arm free he felt her moving to roll over to face him and he froze. Her smile warmed his heart and the thought crossed his mind that he could get used to this. At least behind closed doors where the crew couldn’t see.

“I was starting to worry about you,” she whispered.

Yondu had no idea what she was talking about, “Why?”

“I thought maybe only paying for sex turned you on,” she snickered at him.

“Girlie what are you goin’ on about?” He was completely confused now and it wasn’t a feeling he liked at all.

“You’re blind Yondu, you know that?”

“Fiona ya got about ten seconds to explain b’for I get mad.”

She shifted until she was draped over him with her chin resting on her forearm looking right at him. He put his arm behind his head and watched her. “Yondu I figured when you freed me that you had a good heart. But I also knew what you came to me for in the first place. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you but despite my flirting you seem oblivious. And maybe it’s because of how we met but I’ve been so self-conscious thinking maybe you weren’t actually attracted to me unless you were paying for it.”

He ran his other hand over his face and shook his head, “How th’hell did m’life get so complicated? I was perfectly happy roaming the galaxy stealin’ shit. Then I decide t’keep a damn Terran kid and bring a woman on board that makes me feel some kinda shit.”

Fiona’s eyes widen at his last words and she studied him for a minute before scooting herself up on the bed and planting her lips on his. Yondu is shocked for a minute before he responds by deepening the kiss and pushing his tongue into her mouth. She moaned softly into his mouth and he felt her hands move down his chest. With a feral growl he flipped them over so he was on top of her pressing his aching erection into her hip.

“Cap’n?” Kraglin’s voice sounded over Yondu’s com sitting on the table beside the bed.

Yondu dropped his head in frustration emitting a growl before he reached over Fiona to grab the com. “Yeah Kraglin?”

“We’re 50 clicks from Tradepost.”

“Thanks Krags.”

Turning his attention back to Fiona he set the com on the table, “Sorry Darlin’, we’ll have to finish this later.”

“Kraglin’s a major cock block,” she told him with an amused grin.

Yondu laughed at that, “That he is darlin’.” He gave her a more serious look then, “M’door is always unlocked. Yer always welcome in here.”

She nodded with a smile.

“One thing,” he paused until she looked in his eyes again. “Anythin’ happens here stays here. That includes anythin’ we say. Y’understand?”

“Yondu, in case you hadn’t noticed I don’t exactly open up around other people. You’re the only one I feel completely at ease with and I don’t really like sharing intimate moments. I prefer my private life be just that,” she explained to him.

He nodded at her and stood up to start getting dressed, “Go getcha’self dressed. Tradepost is a tradin’ planet. Might be somethin’ there ya want ‘er need.”

Fiona looked interested at that, but just as quickly disappointed.

“Wha’s wrong?”

“I know you gave me those units from the madame but I don’t feel right spending them,” she told him.

He looked at her like she was crazy, he didn’t think any man in any galaxy ever heard that from a woman. “Wh’not?”

The woman in front of him narrowed her eyes at him and looked pissed then unsure. Terrans were weird creatures when it came to their emotions. Yondu had two. Mad, and not mad. Simple.

“Yondu, if I take that money and spend it then it feels like I’m saying what she did was okay and I’m taking my cut.”

He really hadn’t thought about it that way, he just didn’t want her to have nothing if she decided to leave the ship. “’M sorry darlin’, I really had’n thought a’it that way. Ya been doin’ work on the ship for the last three months and we hadn’ talked ‘bout what y’would earn if yer not out doin’ jobs with us. Ya been helpin’ take care a’Peter too. So what if we say the units ‘r fer that work and we’ll talk later ‘bout what ya should be earnin’ here.”

She pursed her lips and looked like she wanted to argue with him, “Fine.”

“Get yerself dressed and meet me in the M’ship bay,” he instructed as she stood and moved to the door.

“Yes Captain,” she smirked back at him.

That smile of hers left him wishing Kraglin hadn’t called him on the com and they’d been able to finish whatever it was that was getting started between them. Yondu tried but hadn’t been able to bring himself to make use of any brothel services on any planets they’d landed on since Contraxia. Since meeting Fiona she was all he could think about and something seemed to have woken up in him. Centaurians weren’t typically interested in sex for anything other than baby making and they were particularly exclusive to their own species. He had thought as an adolescent that the severing of his Tahlei would kill any sexual interest he had in any species but it hadn’t. It seemed for him that the Kree removing his Tahlei had removed that particular quirk and he didn’t care what species it was that he had sex with as long as they were attractice and female. Fiona though, she had him feeling things that he didn’t think were possible without his Tahlei, or with a non-Centaurian female. It was something he’d have to explore later though, right now he had supplies and picking up details for a few new jobs to focus on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anything anyone want to see? Send me a prompt and I'll work on it. :O)


	7. Just a few things from Terra...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiona takes Peter shopping and makes a decision.
> 
> Just an FYI, I don't think I do a Scottish accent well. Poor Tullk.

When they disembarked the Eclector on Tradepost it looked to her like a large open-air market more than anything else. There were colorful tents everywhere along with what appeared to be carnival games. She had brought Peter with her, Tullk was playing bodyguard, various others of the crew had their own instructions, and Yondu and Kraglin were off searching for supplies and information. Everyone was to get their duties done and then they had Yondu’s permission to spend the rest of their time doing what they wanted. The plan was for the Eclector to leave the planet tomorrow after the supplies Yondu and Kraglin were after had been delivered to the ship.

Fiona had a list of medical supplies and various small parts she needed for ship maintenance. She had given Yondu a list of larger items she thought would help improve function of the ships engine as well as a few pieces she needed for upgrades to the various M ships. In addition to what she had to obtain by Captain’s orders she had a few items of her own she wanted to find. First on that list was a thigh holster and blaster she could handle. Fortunately, in her research of Tradepost she learned she wasn’t required to have any special permits or anything in order to purchase or carry a weapon there. It was her hope that Yondu would stop requiring she have a shadow everywhere she went. Even though she’d proven herself capable it still seemed like he was being overly cautious. She also wanted to find a few more items of clothing, and some more music for Peter’s Walkman if she could find someplace that sold items from Earth. Terra. It still sounded strange to hear Earth called Terra, but she knew she needed to get used to it. Every time she said Earth all of the Ravagers around her looked at her like she had suddenly grown a few extra heads that were all talking at once.

Rolling her eyes she looked down to the excited and anxious boy standing next to her and then to the Ravager hulking behind her. Tullk was actually really nice once you got to know him and she discovered to her delight that he was also from Terra, apparently Scotland. A snapping in front of her face brought her out of her thoughts.

“Y’hear me girlie?” Yondu was saying, she could see Kraglin hiding a smile behind him.

“I’m sorry Captain, I was running through a list in my head,” she replied, it wasn’t a lie but she knew he was just going to snap at her to check her com unit for her list.

Yep, there was that look. A mix of pissed off and amused that made the man’s complexion deepen to a brighter cerulean blue. “Yer list is on yer com. Use it.”

“Yes sir.”

“I said make sure ta stay with Tullk, don’cha leave his side. Ya got me?”

“Yes sir Captain,” she straightened her back and saluted him making Peter snort.

There was a flicker of a grin on Yondu’s face as he pointed a blue finger at her and walked away with Kraglin. She noted before he turned that a red flash went through his implant before he had completely turned away. Wonder what that was about she mused to herself.

“Och, ye ready thar lass?” Tullk asked when she turned to face him.

Nodding she reached down and took Peter’s hand as Tullk lead them to a medical supply tent she wanted to check first. Seeing that the inside was significantly more voluminous than she’d anticipated she left Peter with Tullk at the front of the tent with explicit instructions to stay put. Tullk solved the problem of the antsy seven-year-old boy by lifting him up onto his shoulders. Watching him sitting on the big man’s shoulders she realized she had no idea when the child’s birthday was and made a mental note to ask. He might be eight already and they were none the wiser.

She moved up and down the aisles inside the tent picking up various items and telling the runners how much of each one she needed. By the time she had been through the entire tent she had marked off all of the items on her list and added a few useful pieces of medical equipment as well as a few additional meds she thought would come in handy. It would all be delivered to the Eclector the next morning. Yondu might not be happy knowing that she’d spent five thousand units but he’d survive. When she made it back to the front of the tent she found Peter was still sitting astride Tullk’s shoulders but he had his headphones on and was listening to his Walkman.

They moved through various vendors picking up the small parts she needed and once she had everything marked off of all of her ‘Yondu lists’ she turned to Tullk with a smile.

He narrowed his eyes at her, “I’m nae sure I’m likin’ the tone ah yer look thar lassie.”

Fiona couldn’t help it but she giggled at Tullk, “Can you take me someplace I can get a decent blaster and a thigh holster?”

“Aye, that I kin,” he replied and led her back in the direction they’d originally come from.

It wasn’t long before they made their way into a smaller tent than most of the ones they’d been passing by. Inside it looked a lot like a firearms shop she might have walked into with her brother back home. She swallowed hard when she realized she hadn’t thought of her brother, Shane, in almost a year and had no idea what had happened to him. That was something she was going to have to rectify if there was a way to do so.

As she looked over the various weapons she realized she really had no idea what any of them were or how they might compare to the firearms she might have been used to on Ea…Terra. She consulted with Tullk, who she learned had been in the Scottish military when he was abducted by a Kree scouting party several years before. He was able to help her find a blaster that handled similar to the 9mm Sig Sauer her brother taught her on and it only cost her five hundred units which Tullk said was a decent price. The merchant also had a holster she could use for her thigh though he scoffed at her intended use citing that it was a holster meant for an A’askavarrians tentacles not a Terran woman’s thigh.

She brightened when the merchant called her a Terran, that meant he knew of her species, and made her hopeful he could point them to a tent that sold items from Terra. After some discussion about information costing money and the transfer of another hundred units to the merchant she at least had the name of two merchants who either regularly sold Terran items or knew where they could find them. When they walked in the first tent Fiona actually felt like she walked into a flea market on Earth. There were tables full of toiletries, knick knacks, clothes, shoes, milk crates full of records, cassette and VHS tapes, tools, and so many other things that it brought tears to her eyes. She motioned to Tullk to lift Peter off his shoulders and he set the boy on his feet in front of her.

Peter looked up to Fiona who motioned around the tent and his eyes went wide. He turned off his Walkman and pulled his headphones off his ears to rest around his neck.

“Wanna find some more music for your Walkman sweetie?” She asked the boy who nodded until she wa’s afraid his head might fall off his shoulders. She held her hand out to him and they started walking over to the crate full of cassettes. “When is your birthday Peter?”

“November 5th, 1980,” he replied while going through and pulling out a bunch of cassette tapes.

Fiona wasn’t entirely sure of the exact date to know if it had already passed Peter’s birthday or not. Something else she’ll have to research. Her own birthday had been forgotten in the last 16 months since her abduction from Terra. Oddly 30 didn’t feel either young or old and she wondered just hold old Yondu was and how long Centaurians lived. By the time the three of them were done they had multiple new cassette tapes for Peter’s Walkman along with a small portable stereo they could play them in, a bunch of batteries for them, a VHS player and some movies, some clothes and shoes for Fiona and Peter, a couple of board games, coloring books, and crayons, and a few other things that caught Fiona’s eye. Satisfied with her haul, and with seven thousand units still to her name, she bought the three of them some lunch and something for herself and Peter for later. After they ate she had Tullk walk them back to the Eclector where she told Tullk to go and enjoy the rest of the day since it was only mid-afternoon, and she locked herself and Peter in the Captain’s quarters.

They changed into some new ‘jammies’ as Peter called them, his Spiderman, hers Wonder Woman, and settled down at the low table in front of the couch to play Candyland. When Peter put one of his new cassettes into the new stereo the thought crossed her mind that she’d have to work with Kraglin to figure out how to hook the VHS player up to one of the holoscreens so they could actually watch the movies they got. When _O-o-h Child_ came on she started to sing along and Peter watched her with wide eyes as she smiled at him and bounced her shoulders and waved her hands around. She knew she must look silly but she didn’t care.

“My mom used to sing along with the radio,” he told her when the song was done. His voice sounded sad but he didn’t look like he was going to cry.

“Is it okay that I do it too?” She asked in a serious tone. Honestly, Fiona hadn’t even considered that it might dredge up memories of his mother when she got the cassette tapes for him.

Peter looked thoughtful for a minute then nodded while he ran his fingers over the Walkman he had sitting on the table, “Yeah. You’re different than her, but you’re nice like she was. And pretty too. You’re kinda like a mom I guess so it’s okay if you do the stuff she did.”

Fiona swallowed hard as she looked at the sad little boy across from her, “Thank you sweetie.”

When Yondu and Kraglin walked in several hours later they found Peter and Fiona dancing and singing to _Come and Get Your Love_ with a blue strobe light sitting on the table spinning and flashing. Both of them were singing so loudly and laughing so much that they didn’t notice the two Ravagers behind them giving them the strangest of looks. When the song finished Fiona heard Yondu clear his throat and she immediately stopped and turned on her heel to face him. His eyes swept her head to toe and the corner of his mouth lifted at her attire. She had even stuck a fake golden tiara on her head, though Peter said she couldn’t be Wonder Woman because her hair wasn’t black.

When he noticed Yondu Peter flipped the switch on the strobe light to turn it off and turned the volume down on the stereo.

“I ain’t upset boy,” Yondu told him with a grin. “Ya didn’ have them ear muffs on with the music blastin’ in yer ears this time.”

“Headphones Da…Yondu,” Peter retorted with a crinkled brow upon realizing what he almost said.

“Headphones, got’cha,” Yondu repeated with a smile. “Ya’n Fiona have fun t’day?”

Peter excitedly ran down their day and everything they got including that they had a VHS player that Fiona needed Kraglin to hook up to a holoscreen so he could watch movies. Yondu listened to Peter until it was obvious that the boy had worn himself out and sent him to bed with a promise he’d have Kraglin look at it after they were off planet. Before going into his room he threw his arms around Fiona’s legs, then Kraglin’s, and finally Yondu’s making Fiona smirk at the looks on the two Ravagers faces. Kraglin excused himself to his own room leaving Fiona alone with Yondu. She started cleaning up the mess she and Peter made, Yondu hated anything out of place unless it was him putting things out of place, and the Centaurian watched her. As she was picking up the strobe light he put his hand on it and flipped the switch.

She turned to look at him and noted he was wearing a very sexy and very mischievous smile.

“Put it’n my room,” he told her with a nod to the stairs. “I’ll b’back in a’hour.”

“Yes Captain,” she answered him with a raised eyebrow.

He waggled a finger at her again as he walked out of the main door.

Fiona made her way upstairs to Yondu’s room and set the still flashing strobe light on the table in the middle of the room. Looking around the neat space and to the bed with the pile of furs on it she made a decision. Walking slowly and deliberately she shed her clothes, dropping each item in a trail on the floor from the door to the bed, before crawling under Yondu’s furs completely naked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning next chapter will start smutty. Yondu or Fiona's POV?  
> Also, this isn't going to be the only time Fiona and Peter jam out. Music is so important to Peter because of his mom that I'm going to incorporate that more. 
> 
> Prompts and suggestions welcome. Tell me what you want to see! :O)


	8. Connection...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT WARNING  
> This is a short, smutty, feels chapter.

She wasn’t sure how long she laid there wrapped up in Yondu’s furs before the Captain finally came back to his room. Shifting underneath their warmth she rolled to face him and watched his outline as he bent to pick up her panties from the floor. Smirking she watched while he turned them over in his hands and then looked up to her. Yondu tilted his head and sauntered her way removing his duster and dropping it on the chair at the table. The strobe light was emitting a dim blue light from one round eye that slowly spun at it’s center giving the room a moving soft blue glow. When he stood next to his bed he looked down at her with a smile on his face and holding her panties looped over one finger.

“These yer’s?” He asked while he swung them slowly back and forth on his finger.

She swallowed and nodded her head, suddenly nervous.

“That mean yer nekkid under those furs?”

Fiona nodded again with a sly smile and pushed the furs down from her shoulders so that they were just covering her breasts.

Yondu nodded as he started undoing straps and buckles on his Ravager leathers and shed his clothing piece by piece until he was standing there naked. She couldn’t really see him that well even when the light hit him. Her heart hammered in her chest and she grew even more nervous at her inability to see. The bed dipped, the furs lifted, and then there was a warm body pressed into her side. When she reached out to touch his skin she realized it was rough with scars everywhere her fingers skimmed. Yondu turned so he was leaning partly on her with her breast pressed into his chest. His hand touched her face and she let out the breath she had been holding.

“Ya sure ya want this?”

“Yes,” she said on an exhale.

As quickly as she responded to him he let out a feral growl and was on top of her with his arms hooked under her legs pressing her knees into her chest completely opening her to him. She could feel his erection pressing into her lips but not yet penetrating her. He paused for a minute breathing heavily, deeply, seeming to study her even though she could barely see him. She could feel him vibrating above her like he was struggling with something. Then just as suddenly he backed off and moved down her body, releasing her legs and running his hands down them to lift her ankles and wrap around his broad chest, then layed his cheek between her breasts.

“Yondu?” She lifted her hand to run over his face and when she touched his implant flashes of red ran quickly through it.

He lifted his head and she could feel him looking at her, he must be able to see in the dark she thought, but he didn’t say anything.

“I can’t see you Yondu, what’s wrong?” Fiona whispered, then felt him reach over her to touch something on the table at her other side.

The light in the room brightened enough that she could see him when he turned her way and his ruby eyes held hers. “Nothin’s wrong darlin’. I jus’ don’ wanna treat’cha like I do a bot. I don’ know if I know how t’be gentle.”

Fiona felt a warmth grow in her chest at his words and she wiggled herself down so that their lips were almost touching and she could feel the head of his erection resting below her navel. “Yondu, we’ll figure it out together.”

Yondu kissed her then, softly at first then the kiss deepened and his tongue was exploring her mouth. Patience had never been one of Fiona’s strongest traits and she shifted again until she had him exactly where she wanted him.

He dropped his head into the crook of her neck and bit down gently with a low growl, “Yer so wet I…”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. With a quick upwards thrust of her hips he was buried completely inside of her and she felt like she was going to explode. Every inch of her skin tingled and felt like it was on fire.

“Darlin’ you’n me r’gonna hafta establish who’s boss in this relationship,” Yondu quipped as he moved a hand to her hip and his iron grip held her in place while he started to move inside of her.

His movements were excruciatingly slow, almost gentle. Yondu used his other forearm to brace himself up off of her and his mouth was everywhere he could reach. Kissing, licking, nipping. Driving Fiona into such a state of ecstasy that it didn’t take long before she was shaking and moaning under him, crying out his name, and begging him not to stop. Yondu wasn’t far behind her, growling out her name in a last few hard thrusts. He finally let her hip go and started to move off of her but she stopped him.

“No Yondu,” she whispered, she still needed their connection. “Flip us over.”

Giving her a questioning look he quickly did as she asked then looked up into her eyes as she looked at him for a minute. She draped herself across him and pressed her ear to his heart, listening to it beat beneath her, and closed her eyes. His arms lifted up around her and Fiona pressed herself into Yondu until she felt like she was a part of him. In her entire life she had never felt as safe, wanted, and needed as she did right then with this alien man. Because even though he hadn’t said the words she knew he felt she was as much a part of him as she felt he was of her. They stayed like that for a while, laying connected, in each other’s arms, until Yondu rolled her to her side and looked in her eyes.

“Y’alright darlin’?”

“Never better Captain,” she smirked at him.

He chuckled and shook his head, “Yer a smart ass.” Kissing her lips one more time he held her close to his side as they fell asleep under the furs on his bed.

Over the next several months that was how things went with them. Fiona would wait until Peter was in bed and Kraglin was out of the main room of the Captain’s quarters and she’d make her way to Yondu’s room. They frequently had sex, sometimes they just lay tangled together, needing the comfort of the connection they shared but had yet to fully understand. It was a subject they avoided discussing but knew they would have to eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suggestions and prompts welcome. What do y'all want to see next?


	9. Love and Sentiment According to Yondu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning Yondu is an asshole in this chapter. There's good reason and it's set up for a much later chapter, post GOTG2, which I've already written.  
> I gave Kraglin's M ship a name because other than Peter's M ship and the Warbird I couldn't find Kraglin's named anywhere.  
> WARNING: There is a very small amount of smut in the very end of the chapter.

Fiona let him know that Peter would be turning 10 in a few weeks and that they should probably do something for his birthday then had to explain the importance of birthdays on Terra. She hadn’t even mentioned hers, just the boys, but then she asked him how old he was. That had taken him by surprise and he had to think on it. He’d been enslaved by the Kree 20 years who bought him from his parents as small boy by Centaurian standards, around ten years old ironically, and he’d been a Ravager for fifteen years so he had to guess he was somewhere around 45. She’d seemed surprised by that, said he looked younger, but Centaurians lived to around 250 years so technically he was still a young man among his species.

Peter had been doing good with his navs and co-piloting Kraglin’s M ship, _Whirlwind_ , and after discussing it with Kraglin he decided to start letting the boy fix up and outfit his own M ship. He wouldn’t be able to pilot it alone for some years yet, but he could at least get started on it. Fiona had looked at him like he was crazy when he told her what he was going to give him but he didn’t care. He was the Captain, the boy was his, and his decision was final. To her credit she simply shook her head at him and went back to the M ship she was fixing. The boy would have gotten the ship eventually anyway, why not make it for this birthday thing.

Fiona had talked Kraglin into cloning some of Peter’s music from his music box and spent more time in the M ship bays working on them with music playing over the com speakers now. He’d found both her and the boy on more than one occasion in one of the bays singing or dancing to the music while working on something. For as much as he and Kraglin taught the boy she taught him just as much. Yondu had never asked her to step in and help care for him, she had just done it, and a few times he caught himself looking at the two of them, sometimes the three of them when Kraglin was with them, thinking what a fine family he had. He’d just as quickly disabused himself of that thought. Family let you down. His parents sold him, Stakar abandoned him. Kraglin’s father had sold him. Peter’s father either wanted to use him as a celestial battery or kill him if he couldn’t fulfill his purpose. Love and sentiment didn’t mean anything but pain and heartbreak and he swore he wasn’t going to let Peter, Kraglin, or Fiona down like that. He cared for them, he’d die for all three of them, but he didn’t love them.

Speaking of the three of them he couldn’t find a one of them. He made his way to the control room where Tullk sat at the helm with Horuz nearing the end of second watch. It was late and the boy needed to be in bed, he had a lot planned for the next day that involved Peter and that damn M ship.

“Y’all seen Kraglin, the boy, or my damn mechanic up here?”

“Nae Cap’n,” Tullk responded.

Yondu shook his head and moved to the bank of holoscreens that monitored the functions of the ship and allowed them to monitor video feed in most areas of the ship as well. He ran his finger along the video feed scrolling through various areas until he found the three of them sitting in the mess snacking on more of that damn ice cream stuff the boy was so fond of. By the time he got to the mess the three of them had disappeared again. He couldn’t call them on his com because somehow he had jammed it and needed Kraglin to fix it. If he called any one of them over the ships com the entire crew would hear and it wasn’t an emergency, though it was pissing him off. Finally he decided to just make his way back to the Captain’s quarters where he finally found Kraglin and Fiona sitting at the table in the back reviewing a holoscreen. The boy was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s th’kid?” He snapped making them both jump and turn to face him.

“He’s in his bed,” Fiona said with a frown. “What’s wrong Yondu?”

“Been chasin’ yer asses ‘round this ship for the last hour,” he snarled and went to Peter’s door which slid open revealing the boy sound asleep. One thing about Peter, he had a lot of energy, but when his head hit the pillow he was out. Yondu reached down and ruffled Peter’s hair and then made his way back out of the room.

Walking over to the bar counter he chose a strong A’askavarrian liquor, poured a round, and downed it slamming his glass back on the counter. He gave himself a few seconds to dispel some of his irritation before moving back to the table where Kraglin was explaining something on the holopad to Fiona. Yanking off his wrist com he tossed it down in front of Kraglin.

“Jammed it up, need ya ta fix it.”

Kraglin’s eyes moved warily from Fiona to Yondu as he picked up the com and turned it over to open the panel on the back. He watched while Kraglin looked at it then moved his eyes to Fiona who was looking at him with an unreadable expression. Her lips were crinkled and her eyebrows were drawn together, her expression looked worried if he had to guess.

“Don’cha got somethin’ ta do?” He snapped.

She shook her head and picked up the holopad in front of her again, “Jesus Yondu, who pissed in your Wheaties?”

“Wha’s that?”

“You’re acting like a jerk for no reason,” she set the holopad down and looked at him.

“Watch yer mouth girlie, I’m yer Captain,” he growled at her.

He wasn’t really sure why he was in such a foul mood and taking it out on her and to a lesser degree, Kraglin. The talk about the boy’s birthday had dredged up thoughts of Stakar and his exile, thoughts of family and sentiment, and just reminded him how quickly he could lose everything. Stalking back to the bar he poured another round of the A’askavarrian liquor and downed it too. While pouring a third round of the liquor he sensed Fiona come up alongside of him.

“Yondu, what’s wrong?” She asked quietly.

“Yer wha’s wrong.”

Her eyes narrowed at him, but he was proud his woman kept her voice even when she responded, “What did I do then?”

“Yondu this, Yondu that. Talk about birthdays ‘n shit. Family…” He downed the third round of the liquor and grabbed the bottle this time and pointed a shaking blue finger at her. “All family does is hurt’cha. Makes promises they don’ keep, leave ya when ya need them most. Sell ya ta slavers, die, or wanna use ya. Y’ain’t family Fiona. Remember that.”

Yondu saw Kraglin’s head raise at his words and saw Fiona’s face fall and his heart clenched knowing he didn’t really mean the words he was saying but he couldn’t help but say them. He was hurting all over again at Stakar throwing him away when he’d always promised that would never happen. Stakar had called him son, treated him like family, and if Stakar could do that to Yondu who could say he wouldn’t do the same to Peter, Fiona, or Kraglin?

Fiona didn’t seem to have anything to say to that and Yondu carried his bottle back to the table and grabbed the com from Kraglin when the younger man offered it to him. His First Mate, loyal as he was, looked disappointed but Yondu ignored that too and climbed the stairs to his room with his bottle where he stripped out of his clothes and sat up in his bed drinking from it.

It must have been several hours later when he felt soft hands touch his chest and he guessed he must have passed out drunk. The empty bottle was still in his hand and he moved it to the floor.

“Fiona,” her name almost sounded like Fee-own-ear when he said it. “Ain’t fit comp’ny tonight.”

“It’s okay Yondu. For better or worse, you’ve got me,” she whispered and curled into him.

What the flarking hell?

 

Too early the next morning he woke up with a raging headache and a hard on to rival the hardest metal. Only problem was the woman usually in his bed wasn’t. He vaguely remembered her being there with him, even after he’d insulted her, and saying some shit that sounded like sentiment. Yondu couldn’t remember her words, only that they made the ache in his heart lessen somewhat. As he started to sit up and put his feet on the floor his door opened and the woman in question walked in with a glass in one hand and a small paper cup in the other. Handing both to him she smiled.

“Wha’s this?” He looked in the paper cup and saw two small white pills, the liquid in the glass looked like water.

“Headache remedy. Figured you’d have a nasty one after you drank that entire bottle of A’askavarrian whiskey,” she told him.

Nodding he tossed the pills in his mouth then downed the water and gave her a feral look as he set the containers aside. “Where’s tha’ boy?”

“With Kraglin in the M ship bay. He said you might not wake until later so he was going to have Peter work with him on that M ship you two are giving him,” she explained.

He grunted and reached his hands out to her hips pulling her towards him and between his knees. Leaning forward he rested his forehead on her chest. “M’sorry if a’hurt ya.”

Her hand skimmed over his implant, and he could feel quick pulses run through it. “I’m sorry you were hurting enough to say what you did.”

Yondu nodded and looked up to her eyes which reflected the sincerity of her words. He looked back down to her…navel he thought she called it…and the line of fabric that started below it. Yanking it down and over her legs he felt her lift her feet to help him divest her of the offending piece of clothing. Looking again at her navel and the scars that ran over her belly and down her legs he placed a kiss over each one before lowering her down onto his throbbing erection. An hour later they were both breathless but immensely satisfied and he hoped she felt in his actions that his words of the night before weren’t true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always prompts and suggestions welcome. Let me know how you like the direction of this fic so far.  
> Also, if you have not read it check out Love-is-Yondu-Blue's fic Loyalty which is basically Kraglin's story. It's wonderfully written and so much what I think of when I think of his background and how he came to be with Yondu.


	10. Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Chapter contains some injuries and treatment along with a very minor character death.

“Yondu, you do realize I can do more than ship maintenance and patching up the occasional boo boo right?” She argued for what felt like the millionth time in the four years she’d been aboard the Eclector.

Despite having proven to Yondu, she thought anyway, that she was fully capable of taking care of herself in all but the most extreme situations he still would not let her assist on any jobs they took. He had taken her along on his M ship on occasion when he was concerned they might need medical back up but that was as far as it went.

The man stopped so suddenly that she ran into his back, “Boo boo?” He grouched turning to face her with narrowed ruby eyes making Kraglin cringe and Peter stifle an adolescent giggle.

At 12 he was in the beginnings of puberty and his voice had started to change. Poor Yondu thought the boy was defective and the first time Peter’s voice cracked Yondu rushed him to med bay demanding Fiona fix whatever was wrong. Peter was mortified while Fiona had to explain the changes a Terran adolescent boy went through. Both of them had stopped her short when she started talking about sexual changes. Poor Peter turned beet red and she actually thought Yondu might have turned a deeper shade of cerulean.

Fortunately, she’d gotten better about having these little dialogues in her head when Yondu was talking to her and she was quick to respond these days. “Yes Yondu, boo boo.”

“Girlie, we discussed yer smart mouth last week didn’t we?”

Fiona sighed, they had, “We did, I apologize Captain.” She was making it a habit of speaking to him too familiarly when they were outside of his cabin and Yondu didn’t like it because of how it might come across to the crew. While she understood, it frustrated her all the same.

“I told ya b’fore, yer too much of a risk for a lotta reasons,” his eyes held hers and she nodded. As much as she hated to admit it he was right. First and foremost, not only was she a Terran female, rare in most galaxies, but she was altered to benefit the only trade Terran females were sought for. Ultimately though, she knew if he lost her he would be devastated.

“Yes Captain,” she replied.

He nodded curtly then turned back to continue on their trek to the M ship bay. He’d asked her to go over Peter’s M ship, the _Milano_ he’d named it, to make sure it was in order. For this next job he would be piloting to the small abandoned planetoid they were raiding for a rare ore a buyer had commissioned them to acquire. It was to be one of their most lucrative jobs with little risk. Yondu would be his co-pilot and Kraglin would pilot his M ship with Tullk as his co-pilot. They were also taking Horuz, Taserface, Narblik, Oblo, and several other Ravagers with whom she wasn’t yet familiar.

That still bothered her. The Eclector crew was massive, over a hundred men and still growing, more than half of whom Yondu didn't know or seem to trust. From what little she heard from Kraglin, and a few of the older Ravagers who were with Yondu when he was part of Captain Ogord's crew, that wasn't the norm for a Ravager ship. Their crews tended to be smaller and more manageable and when big jobs came along requiring more men a few of the clans worked together. She thought maybe the crew had grown so large because their clan didn't have the others to fall back on because of Yondu's exile. And that was a subject she was not going to broach with Yondu.

“The M ships ready?” He asked as they walked.

“Yes Captain.”

He turned his head to glance back at her, “Ya getting’ smart with me again?”

“No Captain.” She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. Because he’d reminded her about smart mouthing him now he thought she was being smart because her answers were exactly what he demanded.

“We’re gonna have another discussion ‘bout that mouth a’yours when this job’s done. Y’understand?” Yondu told her seriously, but she could see the ghost of a smile flicker on his lips.

“Yes Captain,” Fiona replied, knowing that most likely the discussion would in actuality involve some rough sex and maybe a little spanking. Both of which she was all for and he knew it.

Fortunately, he didn’t confine Fiona to the Captain’s quarters any longer when he was off ship as long as she promised she would carry her blaster everywhere she went outside of it. She had options on it now to fire an electrical pulse that would stun, rather than kill, her target so at least she wasn’t as wary of using it against the crew if necessary.

“I also put the loader on the _Milano_ ,” she told him when they made it to the bay where various of the Ravagers were readying their M ships. The loader in question was essentially a highly advanced space version of a backhoe that she figured might be useful depending on how much of the ore they were actually loading onto the ships.

Surprisingly Yondu actually looked impressed, “Good thinkin’ girlie, might come in handy.” He looked around to see most of the crew coming on the job were readying their M ships and waved his hand to Kraglin to head on to the _Whirlwind_ and pushed Peter towards the _Milano_. Turning back to Fiona that smile ghosted his lips again, “Might not be back ‘til third watch.”

“Yes Captain. I’ll be prepared for our discussion,” she stood at attention in front of him and he pointed a finger at her as he walked away. When she knew no one could see she let the smile she’d been holding back turn up the corners of her lips.

 

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep when she heard her com beeping on the table beside Yondu’s bed. Picking it up she noted it was Yondu trying to reach her, maybe letting her know the job was taking longer than anticipated.

“Yes Captain?”

“Fiona, get ta med bay, we got some injuries. Kraglin got hit with blaster fire, Tullk’s cut up pretty bad, Taserface got slashed in the gut, three more with blaster injuries,” Yondu told her, and she could tell by the sound of his voice that he was angry.

“Copy that, on my way there now Captain,” she answered immediately.

Jumping out of bed she pulled her clothes on and ran to med bay where she went to six of the exam screens and flipped them on along with activating the hover stretchers. By the time Yondu walked through the med bay door supporting Kraglin she was ready for them. She directed him and the rest coming through the door each to a stretcher and then started triaging injuries. Yondu stood back with Peter whose eyes were wide and worried while he looked at Kraglin and Tullk lying on stretchers next to each other.

Kraglin had a pretty bad blaster burn to his right shoulder involving a major vessel which based on Xandarian anatomy and the fact that was his dominant hand could be a problem if she didn’t get in and repair the vessel as soon as possible. She entered some quick information onto his exam screen and set the screen to glow red while she grabbed a pain killer and gave him a quick injection of it.

Moving on to Tullk she looked over the lacerations on his face and neck and could see he had a lot of debris in them that would need irrigation and debridement, and a few would need stitches. She entered information into his exam screen and set it to glow yellow.

“What th’hell ya doin’? Why ain’t ya fixing ‘em?” Yondu barked at her as she moved to examine Taserface who bared his teeth at her.

“There’s only one of me Captain, I have to triage them to know who needs to be treated first,” she told him while she quickly examined Taserface and realized his armor took the brunt of the slash and there was only a very small wound that just needed cleaning. Again, she entered information on his exam screen and set it to glow green. “Once I’m done triaging then I can go back and start treatment.”

“What th’hells tree ohz?”

“Please Captain, let me finish and then I can explain,” she asked and moved on to a crewman she recognized as a Krylorian named Reeg and knew after examining the wound that he wouldn’t survive it. She smiled at him as she grabbed a larger dose of a pain killer than she would normally give and held his hand a few seconds while he looked in her eyes as she gave him the injection that would sedate him and make his passing easier. He knew. Entering details of the wound and what she gave him on his screen she turned it off.

The last two crew members had very minor injuries and she set their screens to green.

Moving back to Yondu and Peter she looked down at the wide-eyed boy who had been staring at her while she worked. “Peter can you get some things for me?”

He nodded and she gave him a quick list of what she needed to treat Kraglin and Tullk’s wounds and he ran over to the supply cabinets to grab everything for her.

“Captain, the three with the green screens just need their wounds cleaned and small bandages applied. Once Peter gets what I need could the two of you handle those? Kraglin will take me about an hour and then Tullk will be about thirty minutes or so,” she explained calmly.

He was watching her with curious ruby eyes. In the four years she’d been on board they’d never had a situation where they had more than one injury at a time. Yondu had seen her treat some nasty injuries before but this was new and she could see he had a better appreciation for her skill.

“Yeah, we got it. Boy needs to learn anyhow,” he said and looked to the Krylorian with the blank screen.

When he looked back her way she just shook her head. He nodded and moved to do what she’d requested.

Peter brought her what she asked him for and she went back to Kraglin to find him sufficiently sedated for her to deal with cleaning his wound and repairing the vessel. A little over an hour and a half later Kraglin was sleeping and she was finishing up the sutures on Tullk’s neck wound. Peter had been standing off to the side watching her since he and Yondu had finished with Taserface and the other two crew members.

“Fiona,” he started with a crack in his voice.

“Yeah Peter?” She asked as she tied off the last suture knot and snipped the suture dropping the needle from the driver into the sharps box on her tray.

“You’re like Bones from Star Trek,” he said with some wonder in his tone.

That caught her off guard and she chuckled a little, “I guess, but McCoy was a doctor. I’m not.”

Peter thought about that while she put some antibiotic ointment over Tullk’s wounds and bandaged them. “Well, you’re basically our doctor. I’m gonna call you Bones from now on.”

Tullk grinned at her as he got up from the stretcher and she looked back at the boy who was still staring at her, “If that’s what you want.”

“C’mon lil man, I’ll take ye back to Cap’ns quarters so ye can get yer butt inta yer bed,” Tullk told him.

Fiona tried to hand him some pain pills but he shook his head with a smile and left med bay with Peter.

“I have to update Reeg’s medical data and enter his date of death then prepare his body so he can be cremated tomorrow,” she told Yondu quietly. “Kraglin will be waking up from the sedation shortly and can go back to his cabin. He’ll need a dose of the pain killer I put on the tray next to him before he falls back asleep.”

“A’right,” was all he said as he watched her cleaning up the two surgical trays and other trash from the various dressing and medications they’d used. “Y’okay Fiona?”

“I’m fine Captain,” she replied and glanced back to him while she moved over to Reeg’s stretcher.

“Darlin’, ain’t no one else in here ta hear us and Kraglin won’t remember if he does,” Yondu said in a gentler tone.

“I’ll be fine Yondu. What happened anyway?”

He shook his head, “Got th’ore jus’ fine, had the ships loaded. Mine weren’t abandoned like we thought. Some leftover miners, scrappers, whatever they were, came back t’the mine jus’ as we were loadin’ up the last a’it.”

She looked down at Reeg’s body and shook her head, “Did he have any family I should notify?”

“None a’know of.”

“Cap’n? Did we get th’job done?” Kraglin’s hoarse voice came from a few feet away.

Yondu rolled his eyes and shook his head as he moved over to his First Mate’s stretcher, “Son, ya need to be restin’ and not worryin’ s’much.” Fiona watched Yondu lay a hand on Kraglin’s good shoulder and grin at him, “But yeah, job’s all done.”

Yondu helped Kraglin back to his cabin while Fiona finished up with Reeg. Death was never easy. As a paramedic her job had been to save lives but she was never arrogant enough to think no one would ever die on her watch. Her brother, Shane, had been a combat medic with the Navy SEALs and taught her well. Do what you can to save everyone you can and when you can’t save them make their passing easier for them. That’s what she’d done for Reeg. Thinking of Shane made her heart clench. They had never been close enough to Terra for her to tap into information there to find out where he was or what he was doing.

By the time she made her way back to the Captain’s quarters no one was in the main cabin. She almost bypassed Yondu’s cabin for her own, but changed her mind. Fiona needed the comfort of Yondu’s arms that night. When she made her way into his cabin she could hear him snoring lightly and she took off her clothes and climbed under the furs with him. As soon as her skin touched his she felt his arms lift and reach around her. She turned her face into his chest and cried quietly while he held her.

The next day Reeg’s body was given a Ravager funeral and even though only Clan Udonta’s colors flew over his funeral he was sent off into his next life in honor.


	11. She doesn't need to know...

Kraglin recovered from his blaster injury without any issues in his right arm and he was never more thankful for his Captain's impulsive decision to bring Fiona on board than when she saved his life. The crew made a lot of money from that ore haul. Yondu had charged his buyer a little more since he was the one that assured them the planetoid was completely abandoned. The buyer paid without too much protest once the Captain's Yaka arrow encouraged him to up his offer and make the transfer. Fiona had refused to allow Kraglin to return to his normal duties for a few weeks after that incident, and she watched him closely for a few more after that. Surprisingly Yondu didn't argue with her. Oddly Kraglin had noticed that even when he did it seemed to be more a way to get her to stand up to him without letting the crew know about their relationship.

Yeah, they might try to hide that, but they didn't do the best job of it. He and Peter had seen Fiona sneaking in and out of Yondu's room more than he could count over the eight years since she'd come on board the Eclector. Both of them wished Yondu and Fiona would just admit they were mated and be done with it. If nothing else, act like it inside the main Captain's quarters instead of sneaking around in there and dancing around the issue. They didn't need to hide it from him or Peter, the kid was sixteen and he was, well, older, probably twenty-six or so. Peter knew what sex was, had already had his first time plus a few, not that he'd told Fiona or Yondu. That fun discussion came to him as the big brother type in the kid's life and Kraglin begged him to make sure he was using condoms. The last thing they needed was half human/celestial hybrids running around the galaxies or Peter catching some kind of weird virus from whatever girl he was messing around with. If that happened he had the feeling the Captain would have both his and Fiona’s asses.

Kraglin had understood the Captain's reasoning for not letting the crew see his relationship with Fiona. Early on. As time went on and the crew grew larger he stopped understanding and got frustrated with his Captain, though he hid it well. The more crew they took on the more grumblings he heard about the only woman on board and she was off limits to everyone. They all realized she wouldn't hesitate to use that blaster she carried on them if they so much as looked like they were going to jump her. Yondu had to gather the crew in the mess hall a couple of times and remind them with his Yaka arrow that Fiona was crew, not a pleasure bot, and she remained off limits. It was Kraglin's opinion that if the Captain had just said Fiona was his woman the crew would mostly leave her alone.

Sighing and shaking his head he put those thoughts out of his head. Him, Peter, and Horuz were helping Fiona with a major engine repair, and several other Ravagers, including Taserface, Narblik, Vorker, and Oblo were helping with moving parts and clean out. They had been passing through the Alpha Centauri system, a little too close to Centauri IV for the Captain's comfort, on their way to the next job and Fiona had called an all stop. Apparently while she was doing some engine maintenance she noticed that one of the pistons wasn't functioning properly. After she and Kraglin had scoured it end to end three times she had finally found a fracture starting to run through the center of the piston requiring it be replaced. They had set down on a small planetoid on the outskirts of the system, where Yondu was comfortable, so they could make the repair before the piston broke and caused any major engine damage. Yondu may have complained bitterly about Fiona’s need to always keep spare parts but after all was said and done he conceded it saved them a lot of trouble and cost in the long run.

"Krags, I need another hand in here, these flarking bolts are so corroded they aren't coming undone," Peter called to him from where he was using two wrenches to try to break the rust seal on a main bolt holding the piston in place.

The kid had grown fast, and at sixteen already had more muscle than most of the crew. Kraglin just hoped the muscle didn’t go to his head and get him into even more trouble than he was already prone to. He went to grab one of the wrenches and both he and Peter tried to turn the bolt when they heard a distinctively feminine chuckle behind them. When they turned to look Fiona was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest and her jump was zipped down with the arms tied around her waist again. After all these years he realized it was more to irritate Yondu than it was because Fiona was hot while she worked. The ship stayed fairly cold, most of the species of the crew had higher body temperatures than Terrans, and he rarely saw her without her jacket on otherwise.

“So brawn isn’t working on that bolt. Is it time for the brains?” She asked with a grin at them.

Peter let out a frustrated huff, “Bones, I don’t think brains are going to help. This flarking thing is stuck!”

She waggled a finger at him and made a funny sound with her mouth as she walked by them, “Don’t curse.”

When Fiona wasn’t looking at him he rolled his eyes and mouthed back what she’d said. Kraglin widened his eyes at Peter to warn him to shut the flark up but the kid was still imitating Fiona when she walked back with a hand torch. She stood there for a few seconds with a smile on her face watching him before she held the torch behind him about a foot from his ear and popped the lighter on it making the kid jump.

He looked mortified and turned widened eyes to Kraglin, “Krags!!”

Kraglin shook his head and started to say something but Fiona put a hand to his cheek and smiled at him then turned to Peter with a serious expression.

“Don’t blame him for you getting caught Peter. Always own up to what you do. Even if you’re being little shit,” Fiona told him.

“I’m sorry Fi.” Whenever Peter felt bad about something he’d said to Fiona or something he’d done he always went back to calling her Fi instead of Bones. A nickname Kraglin still didn’t understand. But Fi was almost like his version of Mom.

She smiled at him and put her hand on his cheek like she’d done with Kraglin, “You’re forgiven sweetie. Now let’s get this bolt off.”

Peter looked a little shocked and Kraglin was a bit baffled by her reaction as well. She really never lost her temper at the kid, no matter what he said or did. Kraglin watched as she examined the bolt they had been fighting for the last hour and removed the wrenches. She handed each one of them a wrench and examined the bolt again before turning the torch on and running it up and down the side of the bolt until they heard an audible pop. Turning the torch back off she stood back and waved her hand at it.

“You should be able to get it off now.”

Peter looked from her to Kraglin to the bolt and back again then tried the bolt and it came right off.

“Huh, that’s a pretty neat trick Fiona,” Kraglin told her.

“Metal expands when it’s heated and sometimes will break a rust seal, it’s not really that big a deal. It doesn’t always work,” she shrugged. “Anyway, let’s get this piston done so we can get off this rock.”

They worked until the middle of second watch getting the piston replaced and the engine back up and running. Once it was done and everything was cleaned up they got the ship back online and went to the mess hall to finally get some dinner. Yondu was piloting the ship out of the Alpha Centauri system with Tullk in the co-pilot chair. The Captain wanted as far away from his home world as he could get and was going to see to it they got somewhere else himself.

Before they got too far away from the Milky Way system Kraglin wanted to see what he could do to tap into Terra’s satellites for Fiona. She was sitting on the couch watching a movie she called _Ghostbusters_ on her holoscreen hooked up to the VHS player she’d gotten for Peter all those years ago. Kraglin stood at the table in the back of the main cabin working on two of the holoscreens there when Peter came up slurping on something through a straw.

“Wha’s that?” He asked the kid. It smelled really sweet.

“Made a chocolate milkshake. Tastes a lot like it did when I was a kid on Terra,” Peter told him with a grin while slurping some more. “What’re you up to Krags?”

Kraglin leaned back and looked to Fiona, “Keep yer voice down. I don’t want Fiona to hear in case this don’t work.”

“Yeah okay,” he said, then quieter, “So what are you doing?”

“Tryin’ to see if I can tap into Terra’s satellites so she can check up on her brother,” Kraglin told him while he continued to scroll through various feeds and tried finding the nearest satellite he could access.

“Oh cool, she’ll really appreciate that. Sounds like he’s cool. Being a Navy Seal and shit,” Peter said and slurped again.

“Pete, I’m gonna break your fingers if you slurp that one more time.”

Peter grinned. Slurp.

Kraglin snatched the cup from Peter and walked over to the Captain’s bar where he tossed it into the sink.

“Hey dude, that was mine,” Peter grumbled quietly.

“I didn’t break your fingers did I?” Kraglin threw back with a glance to Fiona and went back to his holoscreen. He’d finally found a Terran satellite where he could search for information.

Peter stood next to him, quietly this time, and watched what he was doing.

Suddenly Kraglin remembered Peter was from Terra too. “Hey Pete, anybody you want to check up on if I get this to work?”

He shook his head, “No. I don’t have anything there anymore. My father is the only family I have left. And he’ll call Yondu to pick me up someday.”

Kraglin cringed and looked at Peter then. The boy had grown up mostly on a space ship surrounded by aliens thinking his father was eventually going to get ahold of Yondu and come get him. The family he was waiting for wasn’t what he thought it was. And the real one that had raised and loved him had been with him all this time. Kraglin just hoped Peter would figure that out before it was too late.

“Shit,” Kraglin’s heart sank when he found what he was looking for.

Peter looked at the screen then back to Fiona who was laughing at something on the movie she was watching. Peter reached over and turned the holoscreen off. “I don’t think we need to tell her right now.”

“Yeah. Come on, let’s go watch that movie with her,” Kraglin’s voice cracked and Peter nodded.

They went over to the couch where Fiona was curled up under a fur Kraglin recognized as belonging to Yondu and they sat on either side of her. She glanced up to look at each of them with a smile on her face.

“Restart the movie, we want to watch too,” Peter told her and kicked off his boots.

Kraglin let out the breath he was holding and followed Peter’s lead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, I'm jumping Peter up in age quickly now because I have a lot planned as he gets older. There will be retelling of stories of his childhood when the Guardians get here. And I want to get to a point that I can start doing chapters form his POV as well.   
> Prompts and suggestions so very welcome. Tell me what you'd like to see.


	12. Halfworld Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's vaguely thrown in but Peter is 18 in this one and there's a little hint as to his Celestial genetics. :o)

Looking back over the many years of their very long relationship there were only two times that Yondu thought he'd lost Fiona for good. Once thanks to a few greedy crew members, and once thanks to his own stupidity. The first time was ten years after he’d brought Fiona on board. It was their only trip to Halfworld, the place where Fiona spent nearly a year before being sold to the madame on Contraxia. After that Yondu swore they'd never go back to that disgusting planet for any reason.

Yondu had been going through job offers and one came up from the Collector on Knowhere. He needed someone to pick up a one of a kind, in the entire multiple universes, robot that was with the scientists on Halfworld. And the Collector was willing to pay a million credits just to have the robot brought to him from that scientific nightmare of a planet. Believing it would be an easy job Yondu accepted.

That night while he sat up in bed watching Fiona moving around his room putting the things he'd deliberately moved back into their places he decided to tell her what they were doing. The two of them were a pair, both liked things very specific, nothing out of place. But they both had a habit of moving things and not putting them back just to irritate the other. One or the other of them was constantly putting things back just to have the other one move shit again.

He watched her, a lazy smile on his face, and decided he needed to just tell her. "Fiona, about this next job. We're goin' to Halfworld to pick up a robot fer the Collector."

"Nothing living?" She turned to face him, he knew she remembered that place.

The little bit of material she wore, he thought she called it a negligee, floated around her body as she moved and reminded him how lucky he was this woman was his. It was one of the many reasons he considered himself lucky she was his. She was beautiful, strong, fit, hardworking, intelligent, and equal to him.

"No darlin', nothing living. Ravagers don't deal in live cargo. Those kids, before Peter, before you, well..." Yondu shook his head. "If I'd known he weren't really lookin' to be their daddy I never would'a brought any of 'em to him."

Fiona shook her head and moved to him, placing a hand on his chest, and sat down facing him on the bed next to where he sat. "Stop Yondu, you've told me what happened. I understand and were I in your shoes at the time I honestly think I would have done the same thing. Children should be with their parents if their parents really want to be parents, and he made you believe that's what he wanted. You did the right thing once you knew what was happening."

He narrowed his eyes at her and felt his heart do that warming thing it did when she tried to sooth his guilt over something. Never did he expect to meet a woman he'd want spend his entire life with, let alone one like her. One that made him feel more than he thought he was capable of, more than he knew how to show. Yondu had believed Stakar was the luckiest man alive with Aleta who was strong and tough, a good match for the Ravager leader, but she was also aloof in her dealings with her husband. Something Fiona was not inside or outside of his private cabin, and he didn't know how to do or be enough for her. "Darlin' I don't know what god was smilin' on me when I found you, but I'm thankful I had their favor for at least one day."

She leaned into him to press a kiss to his mouth and whispered, "I'm glad their favor was on us both." Fiona stood up and returned to putting the room in order. Shaking her head she grinned at him when she picked up a tiny stuffed pink bunny he had moved and sat it back on the table next to his side of the bed. “The strongest of men have the softest of hearts.” When she looked at him as she spoke he saw something in her eyes that made his heart skip a beat and he knew he’d found his heart in her. He just wished he knew how to tell her or show her how he felt.

“Come ‘ere,” he held a hand out to her.

Fiona placed her hand in his and he lifted it to his lips, kissed it, then laid it over his heart. He might not know how to say the words to her but he hoped she understood what she meant to him. Yondu lost himself then in her smile and the warmth she freely gave him.

 

The next morning, they arrived at the ports of Halfworld and landed the Eclector. Yondu gave Fiona specific instructions to remain on the ship and not to set foot off of it under any circumstances. She assured him she would stay in the M ship bay since she had some maintenance to do on the _Warbird_ and _Whirlwind._ He left with Kraglin, Tullk, Peter (who was eighteen then), and several more Ravagers in tow to inspect and secure the robot the Collector had sent them for. They were gone less than two hours. Long enough for his entire world to come crashing down around him.

They were pushing the crate containing the robot, which looked a lot like a damn metal blob with fur on it to Yondu, on it’s hoverboard up the ramp to the M ship bay when Peter suddenly stopped. Yondu waved the others on to Bay 5 where they were to secure the crate for the trip to Knowhere and went to see what caught the boy’s eye.

“Yondu, where’s Fi?” Peter was looking at the _Warbird_ whose hatch was open and there were tools scattered on the pad outside of it which was not like Fiona. There was also a large metal rod with something red on its end laying among the tools. Wild eyed the boy pulled his blaster out of it’s holster and started frantically searching the perimeters of Yondu’s M ship.

Yondu whistled and his Yaka arrow jumped out of it’s holster and started speeding around the inside of the _Warbird_ while he and the boy walked the outside. His mind followed along with his arrow as it sped around the ship and he didn’t see any sign of Fiona.

“Fiona!” He yelled as loudly as he could and Peter joined in as their search became even more frantic when they found Fiona’s broken wrist com hidden on the ground halfway between the _Warbird_ and the ramp leading out to Halfworld.

Kraglin and Tullk ran back into the M ship bay when they heard both Peter and Yondu screaming Fiona’s name. When Yondu showed him Fiona’s broken com the First Mate ran over to the control panel and brought up the holoscreen there where he started looking through the video feed.

“Cap’n, come here,” Kraglin called in a shaky voice after a few seconds of searching.

Yondu walked over to where Kraglin stood, his arrow held tight in his fist, and his heart in his throat. “What’cha got Krags?” His voice came out harsh.

Peter came over and stood next to him as they watched what Kraglin had found. Two newer crew members, Zoc and Nielz, walked into the bay where Fiona was working, snuck up behind her, and stuck her over the head with the rod they’d found with her tools. Then the larger of the two, Zoc, picked her up over his shoulder and stood back in the shadows while Nielz walked down the ramp and off the ship for a minute. When Nielz came back he was leading two Halfworld scientists in long white coats who jumped when Zoc stepped back out of the shadows. One of the men pulled a device from the front of his coat and waved it at Fiona, looked at something on the device and nodded to Zoc while activating a hover stretcher in front of them which Zoc laid Fiona on. The other one handed a small pad to Nielz and the scientists departed with Fiona on the stretcher. Zoc and Nielz looked around and then left the bay.

“Tullk, secure Zoc and Nielz in separate cells and keep watch on them yerself til we get back,” Yondu snarled.

“Aye Cap’n,” Tullk looked angry, but went to carry out Yondu’s orders.

“How are we going to find her Yondu? She could be anywhere by now,” Peter’s voice was strained and the boy looked like he was holding back whatever emotion he was currently feeling.

Yondu had started pacing back and forth trying to answer just that. He wasn’t leaving Halfworld without her, but without her wrist com they had no way to track her off the ship. There was little regulation on the planet known for it’s experimentation on and manipulation of both living and non-living entities. One of the few was that whatever being the scientists were working on could not have an owner on record and if it did said owner had to give permission for whatever was being done to the being. Fiona didn’t have an owner on record any longer and she was a Terran female. He didn’t want to consider the possibility that he might not see her again.

“Yondu! What are we going to do?!” Peter snapped, anger lacing his voice this time.

“Boy…I don’t…” Yondu grabbed the front of Peter’s shirt and had pulled the boy so they were nose to nose when Kraglin interrupted them.

“Cap’n, did you ever remove her tracking chip?”

“What?” Both Peter and Yondu said at the same time and turned to stare at Kraglin.

“Her tracking chip? You removed her collar and destroyed the controller but did you ever remove the chip?” Kraglin was speaking slowly and deliberately but Yondu could tell in the cracking of his voice that Kraglin was just as upset as Yondu and Peter.

“I…never even thought about it,” Yondu frantically went over in his mind if Fiona had ever even mentioned it. He honestly wasn’t sure she even knew she had an implanted tracking chip, she probably thought the only implant she had was her translator.

“Do you still have her papers?” Kraglin asked bringing Yondu out of his thoughts.

“Papers? What the flarking hell are you two saying?” Peter was starting to turn red.

“We don’t got time for yer outbursts right now boy,” Yondu said and started walking toward the Captain’s quarters. He hadn’t seen Fiona’s ownership papers since he’d signed them over to her releasing his ownership of her and freeing her. “I’m not sure what she did with them after I gave ‘em to her.”

All three of them rushed into Fiona’s cabin when they got back to the Captain’s quarters and started searching through everything in there.

“What are we looking for?” The boy asked.

Kraglin and Yondu shared a look and Yondu felt a rush of shame come over him. Even though he’d taken Fiona with the intent to free her he’d still owned her for a very very brief period of time. That was something he’d regret every day of his life. Even though it was necessary to free her, it was still among the two worst things he’d ever done.

“Ownership papers,” Kraglin told Peter.

Peter gave Yondu a look of pure disgust and started tearing through drawers throwing everything he found across the room. Yondu searched the bathroom and Kraglin was searching through drawers on the other side of Fiona’s bed from where Peter was throwing things.

Suddenly the throwing stopped and Yondu heard a low growling coming from the boy. When he walked back into the main room Peter was standing there, his eyes very faintly glowing blue, and the boy was holding the stack of papers Yondu hadn’t seen in ten years. Kraglin had stopped searching and was approaching the two of them cautiously.

“Fiona was your sex SLAVE?!” Peter’s voice was barely a whisper and Yondu’s heart almost stopped at the look of pure rage on the boy’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is two parts.
> 
> Send me any prompts or suggestions you want to see. Let me know how you like the direction of this fic.


	13. Halfworld Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it's going to be 3 parts. This is the shorter middle. Once I got to writing I realized I had a lot more for this particular part of the story than I initially thought.

"Boy..." Yondu started until he saw the tears in Peter's eyes and realized he was really just scared. The boy already lost one mother, and now faced losing the woman who effortlessly stepped in to fill that role for him even when Peter pushed her away. Rubbing a hand across his forehead he watched Kraglin approach Peter and take the papers and head back out of Fiona's room. He needed the number that was in the papers in order to try to bring up her tracking chip location on their holoscreen. "Come on son, sit down. We can't do anythin' til Kraglin finds that chip."

"What if he doesn't? What if we don't have a way to find her?" Peter whispered and sat down at Fiona's seldom used table.

Yondu didn't even want to consider that possibility as he sat across from the boy but knew he'd spend his life taking apart the universe to find her if he had to. "Then we'll search every ship and every planet in every galaxy until we do."

"Why was she your..." Peter was fumbling with the words this time and turned sad, scared eyes to Yondu.

"She never was boy, I'm alotta things sure, but I ain't that kinda man," shaking his head he realized it was long past time to tell Peter the truth. He’d asked a few times how they’d met and they danced around the subject. "We stopped over on Contraxia and that damn madame told me she had a Terran woman working there, offered her t'me and I paid fer her 'stead of a bot..."

The boy looked shocked and disappointed, "Yondu, you always told me we pay for bots, never real women." Peter pointed his finger angrily at him before continuing, "You told me, drilled it in my head actually after you found out about that Krylorian girl, that if I was with a live woman it better be because she wanted to be with me and not because I'd paid her or forced her." Suddenly the look on Peter's face changed and Yondu decided to stop him before he went off again.

Gesturing to Peter this time Yondu narrowed his eyes, "Boy b'fore ya start jumping to thinking somethin' like that ya better think hard b'fore you say a word. I ain't that kinda man either, y'oughtta know better. Yes damnit, I paid the madame to be with Fiona. Stakar had just exiled me for pickin' you up and I was..." Scrubbing his hands over his face his eyes moved to a picture Fiona had on her wall that she and Peter had made with the crayons she got him after their first trip to Tradepost. What was he back then? Lost, heartbroken, angry. "Well, lost. I needed somethin' real. Weren't right to do it. And she told me up front she weren't there because she wanted t'be and I took her with me. Had the madame sign her papers over t'me, even made her give me ten thousand units."

Peter's eyes widened when he looked at him then. "Wow. Okay. So why didn't you just let her go, why did you bring her on board?"

"I wasn't thinkin' straight at the time, but a'knew she weren't safe on that damn planet. Signed her papers over t'her, gave her the units, and figured she could decide what she wanted t'do. Gave her this room and she said she was an engineer and paramedic. Kinda all fell into place from there." Yondu looked directly in Peter's hazel eyes then and held his gaze, "I ain't never hurt a hair on that woman's head and never touched her til she came t'me. On her own. Willingly. And if I ever hear y'paid for a flesh and blood woman or made one do somethin' she didn't wanna I will tan yer hide. I don't care how old ya are. Ya got me son?"

Peter just rolled his eyes and shook his head before turning a small grin on Yondu, "Dude, you raised me better than that."

Yondu just nodded and stared at the floor letting worry take over when Peter's next question startled him out of the dark hole he was going down.

"Do you love her?"

Before either of them could explore that question they heard Kraglin calling them from downstairs and went to see what the First Mate had found. When they got to the holoscreens Kraglin was working on they saw he had a large map of the scientific compound they had left less than an hour ago with a red blip flashing on it. He turned to them and pointed at the blip.

"That's where she is. Vitals are stable but I can tell she's lost blood. I can't tell what kinda injuries we're looking at though or how quickly her nanobots are repairing them," Kraglin looked from Peter to Yondu. "How do ya wanna handle this Cap'n?"

Yondu paused for a second while he considered the best way to handle things. He wanted to just walk through the place and take out every single one of the scientists there with his Yaka arrow but that could cause more backlash than they needed. "We go back to Administrator Azfagaar. Demand'er back and the two that took her. Or we let'em know we'll take out the whole place."

Peter looked surprised by his plan, "I figured we'd just be going in and blasting up the place."

Yondu was already moving to the door, "There's alotta depraved beings out there that buy weird shit from this place. You wanna have this planet's clients chasin' us all over? We don't have the other clans to stand by us son. If we did it'd be different. We try it the easy way first. If that don't work, we blast our way in"

Kraglin and Peter followed closely behind him. They made their way quickly to the science complex they'd left just a short time ago and stalked into Azfagaar's office again. Yondu whistled and his Yaka arrow hovered close by.

"Captain Udonta, I don't believe anything was missing from the Collector's new specimen. Was there something you were interested in?"

Yondu motioned to Kraglin who showed him the picture of the two scientists he'd frozen from the feed of them taking Fiona. "The woman they took. She's my ship's mechanic and doctor. I want her back, and the two scientists. Or I'm settin' m'arrow loose."

The man, a Rigellian Yondu believed, looked irritated as he stood up and motioned them to follow him out of his office, "Those two are not scientists Captain and I can assure you they did not board your ship at my instruction. We do have a few regulations here, that we strictly adhere to I might emphasize, and I do not tolerate those who do not follow those regulations. One of those regulations is we are not permitted to take crew off the ships here to do business with us. I will escort you to them myself. What you do with them is up to you but if they have had your crew member for long I cannot guarantee you the condition she will be in."

Peter looked at Yondu with a worried expression, that faint blue glow was back in his eyes, and he moved alongside Azfagaar while they walked, "What do you mean they aren't scientists?"

"They are torturers young man. Their sole job is to determine a specimen's endurance for a particular experiment. It is not something which I am in favor of but it is necessary for some of the work we do."

"She's not a specimen you douchbag," Peter growled at the man.

"Pete," Kraglin interjected before the boy could fly off the handle again, Yondu didn't trust himself not to do the same so he kept his mouth shut.

The further they walked the more they heard that Yondu wished he hadn't and hoped that none of the screams were Fiona's. He had his arrow firmly held in his hand and he could feel it vibrating with the rage that was building inside of him. Yondu knew Fiona was hurt, Kraglin had determined that much, but he hoped that her implanted nanobots were working to repair her injuries. The screams grew louder and he saw both the boy and Kraglin wince every time they heard a distinctively feminine scream. Yondu's anger just continued to grow. Azfagaar led them finally into a large room where they found Fiona and the men who took her. Yondu's heart dropped at the sight in front of them.


	14. Halfworld Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last part of Halfworld.
> 
> Edited to add: This chapter does contain a description of physical injuries as well as brief descriptions of several deaths.

Fiona had been stripped down to the tank top and panties she wore under her jump. She was hanging by shackles on her wrists hooked onto chains embedded in the ceiling with her feet dangling at least a foot off the floor. Blood was running down her arms from where the shackles were digging into the flesh of her wrists and it looked like several of her fingers were dislocated. Her right eye was swollen shut and purple, her left cheek swollen and purple, and a large bloody gash ran from the outer corner of her left eye across her lips and ended in the middle of her chin. Blood dripped from the end of that gash onto her tank top which was stained red and ripped in several places across her stomach. Her panties were intact but also stained red and blood dotted her legs along with several large bruises.

One of the men was standing behind her with a long rod that appeared to be sparking on the end. The other was in front of her with another rod and he appeared to be studying her face. Azfagaar cleared his throat and the one in front turned to face them.

“Administrator we were just…”

“Violating the regulations that keep the work we do here protected? You took that woman from Captain Udonta’s ship.” Azfagaar nodded his head toward Yondu who was still holding his arrow.

The two men looked at each other and the one behind Fiona moved to stand in front of her, both of them looked at Yondu, then back to Azfagaar and appeared to be somewhat confused. “Administrator we were contacted and offered a Terran female specimen by two men who advised they were the Captain and First Mate of the ship. We…”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Peter move forward to the one speaking with his blaster in his hand, but before he or Kraglin could intercede Peter had struck the man in the side of the head with the butt of his blaster. The man fell to the ground and Peter stood over him with the blaster pointed at his head, “She’s not a specimen douchbag.”

Kraglin moved to the other man with the electro rod, blocked him when he attempted to swing the rod at him, and pulled the curved knife he wore on his back from its sheath and held it’s point at the man’s throat. The man wisely dropped his weapon and darted his eyes between Yondu and Azfagaar.

“They are yours to do with as you see fit Captain. Penalty for violation of any of our regulations, no matter how minor, is death. I'll assume you gentlemen can show yourselves out once you secure your crew member," Azfagaar said and went back the way he came.

"Super douche," Peter muttered after Azfagaar.

Yondu moved to where Fiona was hanging, wondering why the hell the nanobots didn't seem to be doing their job. He could smell burnt flesh when he went to grab her to lift her up to release tension on her wrists. She opened her left eye when she felt his arms and did her best to smile at him.

"My boyfriend's back," she gurgled, and leaned her head on his while she mumbled something.

"Wha's that darlin'?" He said gently to her as he lifted her up further to release the shackles from the hook they were sitting in then swung her up completely into his arms.

“It’s a song Yondu,” Peter told him then his strained voice joined Fiona’s. “My boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble, hey la de la, my boyfriend’s back.”

“’Cause he’s kinda big and he’s awful strong…” Fiona sang weakly.

“Hey, that’s the wrong order,” Peter told her and grabbed a fist full of the shirt of the man lying on the floor to stand him and get him walking since he was waking up.

She laughed weakly, “I know sweetie.”

Yondu wanted to be mad at their bantering, but Fiona was smiling through her injuries and he just couldn’t bring himself to snap at the boy. When he got to studying her it didn’t look like her injuries were healing the way they should have been, “Darlin’ why ain’t yer nanos healin’ ya?”

“Disabled.” She whispered.

“Shit,” Kraglin muttered next to him and looked at the man standing at the end of his knife. “Reactivate them.” The man just gave him a wide-eyed look until Kraglin pressed the tip of his knife into the man’s neck until it drew blood, “NOW!!”

He hurried to do as Kraglin demanded with the First Mate following him closely with the point of that wicked knife now pressed into his belly. “This will cause her great pain when they come online and start to work. They won’t be able to heal her the same as they do if they’re active when the injury occurs and they start work immediately…” He paused when Fiona cried out and he smiled.

Yondu heard a sound from his First Mate that he never thought to hear again, the normally quiet man sounded feral, and he saw Peter’s eyes widen in shock. Kraglin had shoved his knife into the belly of the man he held and was sawing it upwards slowly while the man flailed trying to stop him. One thing about Kraglin, he might look like a stick on legs, but he was wiry and had more muscle than people initially thought. He was strong and deliberate, and deadly when his mind was set. By the time he was done he’d essentially sawed the man from belly to neck and shoved his quivering body off his knife back onto the floor where it continued to twitch.

“Dude…” Peter looked at the body on the floor and up to Kraglin who knelt over and wiped his knife on the man’s pants leg.

Kraglin looked up to Peter then over to Yondu and shrugged slightly as he resheathed his knife, “What? He smiled.”

“It is a sign we are doing well when a specimen cries out their pain, the more they scream the better our work,” the man Peter was holding said.

Peter eyes flashed that weird blue again and he fired his blaster at the man’s forehead disintegrating half the man’s head leaving him standing there holding hair attached to sizzling skin. He shook his hand free of it and it dropped on top of the man’s body. “I. Told. You. She’s. NOT. A. SPECIMEN!!!!” It took a few seconds but the glow faded and when the boy looked back up his hazel eyes were clear again.

Yondu nodded at both of his boys, because whether he could bring himself to admit it out loud our not, that’s what they were. “C’mon, let’s get her back to the ship and get off this disgusting planet.”

“Can we not come back here Cap’n?” Kraglin asked.

“Not for all the units in all the universes.”

The three of them, with Yondu carrying Fiona, walked out of the science complex then and went straight to med bay on their ship. Peter activated one of the hover stretchers and Yondu laid Fiona on it while the boy entered something onto the exam screen and it flashed a blue light over her. Fiona apparently had not only been teaching the boy mechanics and engineering, but healing too.

“Her nanos are working, they’re being slow about it but they’re working. If this is right it’ll take about 24 hours for them to heal everything,” Peter looked from the exam screen back to Yondu. “She’s gonna be in a lot of pain. That’s something she told me they don’t do. She still feels the pain, they don’t numb it.”

Yondu shook his head as he stared at the woman laying in front of him, “She never told me that.”

Peter walked around the stretcher to stand next to Yondu, the boy’s shoulder touching his, and Yondu suddenly realized he’d grown taller than him and Kraglin who was taller than Yondu as well. “I’m not surprised. She seems to think you have this thing about showing emotion and appearing weak.”

Kraglin looked at both of them from Yondu’s other side and grunted.

“Can I give her some pain killers Yondu?” Peter sounded anguished when he asked that and Yondu wondered if perhaps he’d seen his own mother in pain and was remembering that.

“Yeah boy, do what you think is best. She trusts you and so do I,” Yondu told him with all the sincerity and seriousness he could manage while he tried to steer his thoughts back away from the fact that he almost lost her for good. He looked at his First Mate then, “Kraglin, tell Tullk to bring Zoc and Nielz to the mess hall and call an all hands immediately.”

“Yes Cap’n,” Kraglin went to do what Yondu commanded and he looked back to Fiona.

“Can I stay here with her?” Peter asked quietly. “I don’t feel right leaving her alone.”

Yondu put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and nodded, “Yeah son, you stay.”

Peter bobbed his head and went to the medical storage room where Fiona kept the pain killers. Yondu looked down on her and brushed some of her coppery hair out of her eyes. Leaning down to her ear he whispered, “Darlin’ I know I ain’t never said it out loud but ya gotta know I love ya.”

She stirred just slightly and turned her head so her lips were touching his stubbled cheek and said in barely a whisper, “I love you too Yondu.”

He heard Peter coming back into the room and stood up quickly then, “Boys gonna give ya somethin’ fer the pain. Don’cha argue with him none.”

“Aye aye Captain,” she said quietly, but loud enough so they could both hear her.

“Call my com if ya need me,” he said to Peter then made his way to the mess hall where Tullk had Zoc and Nielz kneeling on the floor in front of him with their hands bound behind their backs. Kraglin had gathered the entire crew and they all loitered around behind Yondu’s two officers.

“Listen up! Cap’ns got some disciplinin’ to do!” Kraglin yelled over the commotion in the room and everyone quieted down and looked to Yondu.

He moved his duster back so his Yaka arrow was visible and spoke loudly so everyone in the room could hear him. “We’re Ravagers. Some a’you was here when we was with the other clans, most weren’t. So let me jus’ remind all a’ya that we got a code. Violatin’ the code gets ya exiled or killed. First and foremost we don’t steal from our own. We don’t sell our own. And we don’t leave our own behind.” Yondu whistled and his arrow jumped out of his holster and hovered next to his right cheek as he walked around to stand in front of the two men kneeling in front of Tullk. “These two sold one a’ours to those pricks on Halfworld to experiment on. Posed as this ship’s Captain and First Mate. Anyone got any idea what violatin’ the code in this case gets ‘em?”

There were some mumblings of exile onto Halfworld and Yondu realized most of the men in the room had no idea just how ruthless Yondu could be. He whistled quickly twice and his arrow burst through first Zoc’s head, then Nielz, and back through Zoc’s head again. Zoc had been the one to break Fiona’s com and hit her over the head.

“All a’ya remember what violatin’ the code gets ya on this ship. I ain’t gonna exile none a’ya. Yer either gonna get my arrow or I’ll send ya out the airlock.” He made sure the entire room knew he was deadly serious before he turned to Kraglin and Tullk, “Make sure ta go over the entire code with the entire crew so there ain’t no misunderstandin’.”

“Yes Cap’n.”

“Aye Cap’n.”

Nodding once he whistled his arrow back into it’s holster and headed back to the med bay where he found Peter sitting next to Fiona’s stretcher with a holopad in his hands. The boy seemed to be reading something to her and it sounded a lot like one of the stories she used to read to him when he was just a boy. Rather than alerting them to his presence he just stood in the doorway and listened to Peter reading to Fiona while her nanos worked to heal her injuries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts? Suggestions? Anybody?


	15. Family Squabbles

They were arguing again. She could hear them yelling at each other in the main cabin with Kraglin’s voice thrown in every so often trying to calm the two down. Since they’d left Halfworld several months ago Peter had been pushing Yondu to let him start actively working jobs with them. The eighteen-year-old felt he’d proven himself capable of being what he considered a ‘real Ravager’ but Yondu felt Peter was still too impulsive and cocky. Up to this point she had mostly stayed out of their disagreements since he still didn’t take kindly to the interjection of her own opinion.

Even though Yondu had been more open about his relationship with Fiona in front of Peter, Kraglin, and Tullk he still wanted it hidden from the crew. Kraglin had tried to talk to him about it, and explained rationally that if the crew knew she was his woman there’d be less chance of one of them trying to hurt her. Yondu still believed showing emotion in front of the crew, or any evidence of their relationship, would make him appear weak. Fiona was of the mind that if the crew was smaller and more manageable that wouldn’t even be an issue. She knew why their clan had grown so large and she wished there were some way she could get Stakar to reconsider Yondu’s exile but she’d never even met the man.

Since the incident on Halfworld Yondu was back to keeping someone with Fiona at all times when he wasn’t with her. That duty often fell to Peter when they were on board the ship since his primary duties were also ship maintenance and if they were planetside somewhere Tullk or Kraglin was also with them. Fiona had recovered slowly from her injuries, while the nanobots worked there seemed to be something different in how they functioned, and her body had to do much of it’s own healing. As of yet neither Kraglin nor Fiona had figured out why the bots weren’t working properly and they weren’t about to go back to Halfworld again. The gash on her face had left a reddened raised scar that made her self-conscious and she tended to unconsciously cover that half of her face with her hair.

That particular evening she’d had a headache, one of the odd things she’d suffered since Halfworld that she’d never dealt with before, and she had curled up under the furs in the room she now shared openly with Yondu. When she moved her things, not that she had much, into Yondu’s room both Peter and Kraglin had told them they’d known all along. All that did was make Yondu grumble even more about going soft.

Their voices were getting louder and when she checked her wrist com she realized it was approaching the end of second watch. Kraglin only had about an hour before he had to be in the control room for his watch and she could still hear him trying to play mediator between what was essentially his brother and father. Sighing dramatically Fiona swung her legs over the edge of the bed and pulled on her flannel pants and thermal Henley she wore when not cuddled up to Yondu or under the furs in their room. The ship was always cold but it seemed colder over the last few months. She padded out of the room and stood at the railing outside of their door looking down on the two arguing idiots.

“Yondu I’m not going to mess the job up!” Peter was red-faced and standing about a foot away from Yondu with his fists on his hips.

Yondu looked angry as well, his complexion was a darker cerulean, and his implant was flashing though his arrow was definitely not active. She’d noticed that when Yondu’s emotions were high with herself, Peter, or Kraglin his implant would sometimes flash even when he wasn’t using his arrow to make a point.

“Boy…” Yondu started but Peter threw his hands up in the air and Fiona could see him rolling his eyes even from where she stood.

“Dude! Come on!” Peter exclaimed, “I’m not a kid anymore, stop treating me like one.”

“Cap’n he’s gotta learn, we’re gonna be with him,” Kraglin was trying to find a solution that worked for them both and she could see Yondu’s jaw working in anger.

Rolling her own eyes she moved to head down the stairs, “Kraglin’s right Yondu. Peter wants to be a Ravager like the two of you. If you don’t teach him how is that going to happen?”

The three men turned at the sound of her voice. Peter and Kraglin looking chagrinned, and Yondu looked concerned.

“Shit Bones, did we wake you up?” Peter chewed on his bottom lip.

She reached a hand out to squeeze his forearm with a smile as she passed into the middle of the three of them. “Pretty sure second watch can hear y’all yelling from the control room.”

“Y’head alright darlin’?” Yondu asked with some concern.

He wasn’t used to her ever being in pain or not feeling well. In the entire ten years she’d been on the ship she’d never once complained of anything, but since her nanos went on the fritz she’d been having headaches at least once a week sometimes rising to migraine level. She’d had to close herself in their room a few times because of them and it had Yondu worried. She and Kraglin thought it was the result of some programming added before her nanos were reactivated but they hadn’t been able to figure it out and were hard pressed to deactivate them again to test the theory.

“I’m fine Yondu, stop worrying,” she grinned at him and ran a hand over his cheek. Then she looked between him and Peter, “You trust him to keep me safe don’t you?”

“A’course darlin’,” Yondu told her but he was watching Peter.

“Then trust him to do a good job for you,” she requested and saw Peter give her a grateful look.

Finally he shook his head and Fiona knew he was going to relent, “A’right, but…” He pointed a blue finger at Peter then, “Ya follow the plan like Kraglin and I set out to the letter. Understood?”

“Yeah, yeah Yondu. I got it,” Peter gave him a flippant reply and shook his head as he started to walk away.

“Son, ya need to adjust yer attitude,” Yondu warned him. When Peter paused Yondu’s eyes flicked to Fiona before he spoke again. “I jus’…Ah hell…”

Peter turned back to look at Yondu and waited for him to finish.

“Yer a good pilot, yer smart, and ya can be a good thief. But yer cocky, and that can get ya in trouble,” Yondu told him in a much calmer voice.

“Yondu, I won’t screw up,” Peter promised, his color returning to normal finally.

Fiona noticed Kraglin finally relax once the two other men weren’t yelling at each other and had finally reached an agreement. He looked at his wrist com and faced Yondu, “I’m gonna head to control and check our navs, it’s almost time for my watch.”

“A’right, let us know when we’re orbiting Ciegrim-7.”

“Yes Cap’n,” Kraglin responded before turning and leaving.

“Get some sleep son, we’ll be in orbit around the planet b’fore ya know it,” Yondu grasped Peter’s shoulder and nodded toward his room.

“Yeah, alright,” the young man said, glanced to Fiona, and made his way into his room.

When they were alone Yondu turned and looked Fiona over from head to toe then held his hand out to her. She put her hand in his and he led the way up the stairs back to their room where he made her sit down on the bed. He took off his duster and laid it over the back of the chair at the table next to their bed.

“What’s going on Yondu?” She asked, even though she was already pretty sure she knew what he was going to say to her.

“I want ya to come with us,” he said simply as he started undoing the straps and buckles on his leathers.

That startled her, she was expecting him to tell her to stay locked up in the Captain’s quarters while they were gone. “Okay. What’s up Yondu?”

As he removed his jacket and pulled off his t-shirt baring his blue and heavily scarred chest he took a few quick steps back to her and sat down on her right side. “I’ll be off ship with Tullk, Kraglin, and Peter.”

Fiona pursed her lips, now she understood. He was afraid if all four of them were off ship that she was vulnerable even in the Captain’s quarters. “Alright Captain.”

He smiled and pointed at her as he bent over to unbuckle his boots and zip them off, “Yer bein’ a smart ass.”

“Perhaps,” she threw him a mischievous grin and stripped back down to nothing before crawling under the furs on their bed again.

Yondu watched her carefully as she stripped and when he realized she hadn’t been wearing anything underneath her clothes he smirked and shook his head. Once he had shed all of his clothing he climbed under the furs with her and pulled her into his arms. “I’m worried ‘bout ya darlin’, ya never had pain b’fore, never got sick, nothing.” She felt his fingers tangle into her hair and run through the strands, repeating the action as his fingers reached the end.

“I’m fine Yondu. I’m human, that’s all. Without the nanos I probably would have been having some issues all along,” she explained calmly enjoying the simple affection he was giving her.

“Fiona,” he hesitated, and she could feel him working his jaw as he puzzled through what he wanted to say. “What if…”

She reached her arms around him and held on as tightly as she could, “I promise I’m fine. Peter…Well he was worried I might have had brain cancer like his mother, and he talked me into letting him scan me to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. There’s nothing there. It’s the nanos. Something that was added to their programming after they were deactivated. We’ll probably need someone familiar with Halfworld tech or experiments to get them working right.”

He grunted then and she felt his fingers stroking her cheek after they passed through her hair. She fell asleep easily a few minutes later to his lips touching her forehead.

 

The next morning Yondu and Fiona woke up several hours before end of third watch and got dressed. Fiona actually had the opportunity to wear her leathers on something other than a trip to a trading planet. It had been a few years since Yondu had her come along on a job for medical back up and she was actually starting to understand Peter’s frustration. Granted she wasn’t ever going to be a cold blooded killer, neither would Peter, that was more Yondu and Tullk, and to some degree Kraglin. Even Yondu killed with a purpose, she could never say he was truly cold blooded. Tullk was like her brother, he was cold blooded when the situation called for it, but was otherwise fairly happy go lucky. Kraglin tended to stand back and watch a situation to find the best way to resolve it but if it came down to it he was lethal with that knife of his. Peter on the other hand, he had too good of a heart to take a life if it wasn’t needed to protect another. He used electro stun charges on his blaster and she wasn’t even sure if it had a blast setting. But damnit she could do more, help them plan, provide distraction, something. She was Yondu’s equal, and he knew it. He was just afraid of losing her, losing control, and losing the family he didn’t realize he’d wanted.

They only took the _Milano_ to the planet’s surface. Apparently Ciegrim-7 was primarily a distilling planet and its inhabitants were what Fiona could only call snails. She had no idea how they made all of the different alcohol the planet produced but it looked like at least 75% of the planet was a distillery. They were after one particularly rare alcohol that had some aphrodisiac properties a buyer on Gramos wanted to encourage a Duchess he had his eye on to sleep with him. The buyer was apparently so desperate for this alcohol that he offered to pay Yondu’s clan a hundred thousand units for just one bottle, more if they managed to bring back more. When Yondu and Kraglin explained the job Fiona had looked at them like they had gone mad and shook her head before settling down in one of the jump seats behind Yondu who sat in the co-pilots chair.

For as much as Peter and Yondu argued, constantly, they worked well together, each of them responding to the other without much need for direction. Watching the two of them act as pilot and co-pilot was like watching a well-oiled machine work as it was supposed to. This job was the first time she had the chance to observe the two of them actually work together. Granted, there was still a lot of bickering, but it was more controlled somehow. It actually seemed to have a purpose. She didn’t think they realized just how well they worked together. They were both so stubborn that she really thought more often than not they argued with each other because it was just their first reaction to anything they said to each other. Frankly she didn’t think they actually disagreed with each other all that much. Peter might not have been Yondu’s blood, but he was definitely his son. Whether either of them would ever admit that or not she didn’t know.

Peter set them down on the planet easily and the four of them headed off to complete the job while Fiona stayed in the _Milano_ with _Hooked On A Feeling_ playing quietly. She’d moved to the co-pilots seat so she could see them when they returned. It was only maybe an hour later before she saw them walking calmly back, each carrying a case of what she assumed to be the alcohol they were after. In the distance she saw several of what she could only describe as what looked like four-foot-high neon orange snails trailing slowly behind then. Yondu had told her what the Ciegrimites were, shown her a picture on one of the holopads, but seeing them in person was quite another thing. It took all the willpower she had not to burst out laughing at the sight.

She could hear them boarding the _Milano_ and making their way up to the pilot cabin as she continued to watch the Ciegrimites in their painfully slow pursuit.

“Well, what’re waitin’ fer? They might be slow but they’ll catch up eventually,” Yondu was scolding her.

Fiona turned around to give him an incredulous look as Peter sat down in pilot’s chair and got the ship ready for take-off. “What do you expect me to do Captain?”

He narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at her, “I expect ya ta get this ship moving girlie.”

Her mouth dropped open as Kraglin and Tullk took their seats and strapped in, Yondu did the same leaving Fiona as the co-pilot. She looked between all four men then before turning around to look at the controls in front of her in absolute confusion, “Not a one of you idiots ever thought to teach me how to fly.”

Peter started snickering but Tullk was the one that spoke up.

“How do ye get tae be an aeronautics engineer lass and not know how tae fly a ship?”

“Knowing the mechanics of how it works, and actually doing it Tullk are two very different things,” Fiona pouted.

“I’ll teach you Fi,” Peter piped in before any of the others could make any more smart comments.

“Ah shit,” was all Yondu said to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless request for prompts. I love to write in what y'all want to see and my next prompt won't come up until Peter is a little older.


	16. Fiona and Peter's Day Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter from Peter's POV. :o)

Peter had been making good on his promise to teach Fiona how to fly and they’d been going out on the _Milano_ for the last year. He started the same way Yondu had with him and worked on teaching her the navs and how to chart courses. Once she had the navs down he moved on to teaching her how to co-pilot. Fortunately, since Fiona had been an aeronautical engineer on Terra she understood the basics of flight and knew the function of the controls so he didn’t have to start that basic. If he had his patience probably would have given out very quickly. Despite what Yondu thought he did recognize his flaws, and knew patience wasn’t his strongest point.

He actually liked flying with Fiona, she didn’t grouch at him constantly like the old man did, and she liked listening to the music on the stereo he’d pieced together on the _Milano_. They could have it playing low in the background and she didn’t complain like Yondu always did. In fact, there were a lot of the songs they would sing along to while they flew. Yondu had been letting Peter make supply runs on his own with Fiona as his co-pilot with the only stipulation being he never let Fiona out of his sight when they had to be off the _Milano_. He figured the blue doofus would realize by that point that he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. She was the closest thing to family he had, at least until his father finally came to get him.

They were on a supply run to Xandar and Peter had a tip on an item near the supply pick up that would bring them at least a hundred thousand units if they could get it without a lot of trouble. He wanted to prove to Yondu that he knew what he was doing and could handle the planning and execution of jobs on his own. His only problem for this one was that he had yet to tell Fiona they had a job in addition to the supply pick up. Granted Fiona had never balked at what the Ravagers did but he wasn’t sure how she would feel about actually stealing something. The Eclector was hovering just outside of Xandar’s orbit while Peter and Fiona flew on to the planet.

Peter looked over at Fiona who was making a nav adjustment on her holoscreen and he cleared his throat. “Uh Bones…” It didn’t escape him that _Moonage Daydream_ happened to be playing quietly over the ships speaker system.

She hummed and ran her fingers over the holoscreen then glanced over at him.

“We’ve got a job on Xandar….Surprise!” He told her quickly with a tight smile, and tried his best to sound confident.

“Yondu know about this job?” Fiona crossed her arms over her chest and turned her chair to face him.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to get out what he thought might be a satisfactory answer, before he opted for the truth. “No.”

Pursing her lips she shook her head and turned back to her holoscreen, “What’s the job?”

It took him a second to realize she wasn’t yelling at him and had started scanning Nova Corps activity on her holoscreen. His mouth was still open when she turned to look at him again.

“Well?”

He spluttered for a second before finally regaining his wits, “There’s a merchant who has a small blue statue near the front of his shop, it’s supposed to be made from some kind of rare mineral. It’s the mineral the buyer wants. He’s willing to pay a hundred thousand units for it.”

Fiona hummed again, “Where’s the buyer?”

“Gramos.”

“How are you going to spin that to Yondu?” She turned toward him again with a raised eyebrow.

Peter took a deep breath and let it out noisily, “I hadn’t thought that through yet.”

Shaking her head she turned back to the holoscreen and just tapped a finger over it for what felt to Peter like forever before she finally raised her eyes to his again. “You should know that I’ll always support you but you make it hard when you act before you think. Whether you believe me or not Yondu wants you to succeed.”

He dropped his head, “I know. I just don’t know how to deal with him sometimes. He jumps down my throat before I can get a word in.”

“Sweetie, you do the same thing to him. You’re the same you know.”

“It seems like nothing I do is good enough for him. My mom called me her little Star Lord and I want to be able to live up to what she believed I’d be. When my father comes to get me, I want him to be proud of me,” Peter frowns and shakes his head and misses the pained look that crosses Fiona’s face. “I want to prove to Yondu that I can do it.”

Fiona lets out a breath long and slow making Peter look back up to her, “You can't keep the job from Yondu, you know that right?"

"I know Bones, I just want to get it done and have the statue in hand ready to deliver before I go to Yondu. That way he'll see I can do it on my own. I don't intend to keep the units for myself, I know how this works," Peter explained as he steered them onto the flight path Fiona had set to land on Xandar. He heard her sigh and when he turned to look at her again she had the fingers of one hand pressed into her the side of her mouth while she continued to review the Nova Corps coms.

"Send me the location of this shop," she sat forward as she continued running her fingers over the holoscreen in front of her.

"Bones I don't expect you to help me with this," he told her with wide eyes. He was both surprised and happy that she wasn't mad and was willing to help.

Fiona waved her hand dismissively, "I understand that Peter. I'm a Ravager too..." She mumbled something that sounded a lot like 'despite the blue idiot's need to smother me' then looked over his way, "I can help if you want me to but if not I'll stay here."

Peter worked his jaw back and forth as he sat facing her, he was honestly torn. On the one hand he thought it would be cool to partner up with Fiona, he had a lot of fun flying with her and doing supply runs after all. But, on the off chance that something did go wrong he didn't want Yondu to be mad at her or for her to get hurt or picked up by Nova. Turning back to his controls he brought up the shops location and sent it over to her holoscreen then went back to steering the ship. "Even if we get this done without any problems he's going to yell. At both of us."

She snorted and leaned closer to the screen to check the coordinates he sent her before she went back to the Nova coms she'd been scanning, "Like I don't know that."

He watched her scroll through the coms on the Nova Worldmind that she'd somehow hacked into. It looked like she was in their internal coms, the ones that monitored Corps and criminal activity. "How the hell did you get in there anyway?"

"Shane..." Fiona pursed her lips when she said her brother's name, it had been a long time since she'd brought him up and he and Kraglin still hadn't told her what they'd found. "Was a combat medic, but his rating was actually computer intelligence. He taught me more than he probably should have."

"Sounds like he was a pretty cool brother."

"He was..." Peter watched as she listened for a second to something in the earpiece she had in her right ear then ran her fingers over the holoscreen again to bring up a map. "He was a lot like Kraglin is with you. It was just us and our mom growing up. Our dad was killed in Vietnam when I was two, Shane was probably ten or eleven. He was my brother but then kinda like my father when I was a teenager because our mom wasn't really functional.” Her eyes flicked over to his and held them for a minute, “I didn't appreciate him for a long time, but I finally realized that sometimes family surprises you in how they manifest themselves and the roles they play in your life."

Peter started to feel really guilty for not telling her what he and Kraglin found and even though he knew it could've gone really bad he decided to say something to her. "Fi, about Shane..."

She held up a hand to stop him while listening again and he maneuvered them into the Xandarian atmosphere. When whatever she was listening to stopped she looked at him with a sad smile, "I know what you and Kraglin found Peter. Yondu told me."

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you."

"There's no reason to be sorry sweetie. You told Yondu, and he told me when I was in a place to handle the news," she reached out to lightly touch his forearm and smiled.

He really didn't understand her. Yondu wasn't always the nicest to her, for that matter neither was he, but she never got mad at either of them. She'd gotten mad at other people, beings, for hurting, or trying to hurt them or Kraglin, but if someone came at her she'd usually just walk away. Fiona was more than capable of handling herself in a fight, he'd seen her go toe to toe with Taserface a few times over the years. That guy did not like her for some reason. Peter was still convinced it was probably because she made the asshole apologize and give him back the bear Yondu had given him when he was seven.

He steered the ship to land outside of the main city while Fiona continued to scan Nova's coms. She also had a map up of the area where their supply pick up and the shop with the statue was located on another holoscreen. Pointing to the map she turned to look at Peter.

"That's the shop," she moved her finger a click north of the shop. "That's our supply pick up. I think we need to be smart and get the supplies first, load them on board, and then go to the shop to get the statue. That way we're not hanging around Xandar longer than necessary for Nova to possibly pick us up."

He nodded, "Yeah, that was my plan."

Touching the holoscreen she spread her fingers open to enlarge a piece of the map of the shop. "How did you plan on overcoming the security measures inside?"

"Can you hack it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I've got those cloaking discs I picked up on Knowhere," he paused as he thought the plan through.

"Yeah, but they decloak briefly when you touch something outside of the cloaking bubble," Fiona reminded him.

"I know. Could you hack the security so none of the main alarms go off but maybe something beeps or whatever in his back room? That'll distract him long enough that he won't see me decloak when I pick up the statute."

Peter watched as Fiona examined something on the holoscreen, "He's got a back door to an alley that's alarmed. I could make that one chirp so he'd have to check it out."

"That'll work. You use one of the cloaking discs too so no one sees you sitting out there with the holopad and calls Nova."

"Alright, let's do this."

Peter smirked when he realized _Cherry Bomb_ was playing through the _Milano's_ speakers then. They made their supply pick up and their plan for stealing the statue went over with minimal issues. When Fiona set the back door to chirp and the merchant went to check the backroom Peter grabbed the statue and put it in his knapsack. It took about 30 seconds for his cloaking disc to recognize the statue was on him and not touching anything else. So he stood there awkwardly waiting, hoping the merchant wouldn't come back to the front, while he waited for the disc to recloak him. When it did he hightailed it out of there and he and Fiona made their way back to the _Milano_. They only had one mishap when someone bumped into Fiona and she decloaked for about a second. Otherwise they got back on board and made their way off planet and to the Eclector without any other issues. Yondu only yelled at them for thirty minutes which Peter considered a win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might not be up until the weekend. I'm writing two fairly big pre GOTG prompts and they're both fairly long so I may wind up breaking it up into two to four parts depending on just how long but I doubt I'll post until I'm totally done writing them both through.
> 
> Speaking of...
> 
> Prompts anyone? Tell me what you want me to write in.


	17. It Sounded A Lot Like Doody

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, this chapter introduces a sensitive relationship topic.
> 
> Since I got a second prompt for this and I was already writing it I decided to post part one tonight. Part two is almost done.

While Yondu wasn’t always exactly happy about it in the few years since that first job Fiona and Peter had planned and executed several more on their own and made a lot of units for their clan. Units always made Yondu happy. He’d been taking some bigger jobs lately and since Peter had proven himself capable Yondu had been bringing him on those. She was happier than she knew how to express to Yondu without him yelling that he was because it let Peter know Yondu had confidence in him. The young man was twenty-two and after fifteen years they had finally stopped the constant bickering and were closer than they had been during Peter’s teenage years.

One of the biggest jobs they had was taking up a lot of the entire clan’s time with planning because it involved more deception to gain information rather than actual theft or muscle. For the most part she really never asked for details of the jobs the clan did when she wasn’t specifically involved. Not because she thought what they did was wrong but rather because she trusted Yondu knew what he was doing. After all he had been Captain for over twenty years and their clan did quite well even as big as they were. Because of the time he was spending off ship or in control working on details of the job it had been several weeks since Fiona and Yondu had any real time to spend together. Fiona was engrossed in her yearly routine maintenance cycle so quite often the only time they saw each other was when one or the other of them was going to bed or getting up. Sometimes they’d make time enough for some intimacy whether that be holding each other a few minutes in the dark of their room, a quick make out session, or sex. Other times all either of them would have time for was a quick kiss. The words ‘I love you’ hadn’t been repeated since they’d brought Fiona back from Halfworld and Fiona was too afraid that saying them to him would somehow send him running from the reality of the family they had.

Yondu had been off ship for several days, gathering information Kraglin had explained, and had finally returned that day. She was looking forward to sharing their bed with him again and hoped they’d have the opportunity that night. If they didn’t do anything other than lay wrapped in each other’s limbs she didn’t care. All she wanted was to feel him next to her.

She’d finally finished her days work and was sitting in the mess eating a Xandarian version of chili and skimmed through a physiology text on Centaurians that she’d finally managed to acquire on her holopad. Yondu was there eating his dinner as well but she never sat at the Captain’s table in the mess hall unless he requested her to do so because they had some business to discuss. It wasn’t her habit to eaves drop but she could hear him recounting some details of the job to whomever was sitting with him. Her back was to them and for the most part she ignored the conversation until one of the crew asked him how good a fuck the mark was.

“She wasn’t great, I had better from a bot fer damn sure. I got the information we was needin’ though,” was his response and Fiona felt like time stopped.

Yondu had fucked another woman? Suddenly her appetite was completely gone and she looked into her bowl with wide eyes. Tullk sat down across from her with a smile on his face and a spoon in another bowl of whatever she’d been eating. When he noticed the look on her face he frowned.

“Whas wrong lassie?”

All she could do was shake her head before standing up, dropping her half full bowl into the dirty dish collector, and making her way woodenly out of the mess hall. She walked back to the Captain’s quarters, grabbed a few things, and then detoured to the M ship bay where she stood for some time starring at the various M ships. Deciding Peter would just have to live with her intrusion she boarded the _Milano_ and turned on the stereo system. Ironically The Kinks _You Really Got Me_ started to play and she flopped down into the pilot’s seat, opened the full bottle of A’askavarrian whiskey she’d grabbed, and tipped it to her lips. She was there for maybe an hour or more before she heard someone climbing the ladder from the bottom of the ship.

“Bones! What are you doing in here?” Peter asked her, even in her already drunken state she could hear the concern laced in his tone.

“Mmmmph, you wouldn’t understand,” she slurred while she turned away from him and propped her feet up onto the control panel in front of her.

“Yondu’s gonna be pissed,” the twenty-two-year-old man child told her, unhelpfully she thought.

Like she didn’t know he would be angry. “Don’t care,” she said and handed him the empty bottle of whiskey and tried to open the bottle of Xandarian brandy she also grabbed from Yondu’s bar. Peter was a little faster than she was and he snatched it from her hands before she could get it open.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked with wide eyes.

She turned back toward him, leaned forward and pointed at his nose. Closing one she tried to bring the three of him into focus. “Your daddy is a blue idiot.” At least that’s what she thought she said.

Peter looked at her like she had three heads, “Come on Bones, let me help you back to your room.”

Fiona stared at him for a minute and when she started to stand up her stomach flopped. Instead she scooted herself slowly from the pilot’s seat onto the floor and laid there. “M’no, gonna sleep here.”

She could see him shake his head and disappear out of view for a minute. Her mouth was open and she knew she was drooling while her stomach roiled but she couldn’t bring herself to care. A few minutes later she heard Peter’s footsteps again and a can was dropped next to her head and she felt something being laid over her. It sounded like he sat down in the seat opposite where she was laying, “If you’re staying so am I.”

Her heart lurched along with her stomach and she could feel tears start rolling down her cheeks.

 

Fiona had no idea how long it had been when the sound of voices from the deck below her floated to her ears. The ship was spinning so she kept her eyes closed.

“Wha’ th’hell is she doin’ laying on the floor son?” Yondu’s voice floated to her ears. Strange he actually sounded calm.

“She drank your bottle of A’askavarrian whiskey…” Peter’s voice came next. Worried but also calm.

“By herself?”

“Yeah, tried to open the Xandarian brandy but I got it from her.”

“Is she okay?”

“Hell Yondu, I have no idea. I’ve never seen her like this, I don’t think I’ve seen her drink more than a few shots of that blue stuff you like.”

Quiet then. Blissful quiet. Then footsteps. Fiona’s stomach lurched and she reached for the can she seemed to recall someone putting near her head last night. Pulling herself up a little bit she stuck her entire head in the can which smelled like vomit and emptied what little was left in her stomach.

“Shit, she’s getting sick again.”

Cool hands were pulling her hair back from her face. Too cool for Yondu’s hands, too large for Kraglin’s. Peter’s maybe?

“If she drank that entire bottle she’s gonna be sick fer awhile.”

“I know, I know. What the hell happened anyway? She wasn’t making any sense at all last night. I think she might have called you a blue idiot, but it sounded a lot like doody so I’m not sure.”

Blissful quiet again and she lifted her head out of the can since her stomach wasn’t protesting anymore. She had to plant her cheek firmly on the floor and close her eyes to keep the ship from spinning out of control. How was Peter flying this thing if it was spinning like that? He freaked out if she rolled it once.

“Blue idiot? What th’hell did I do?”

“Well if I knew that Yondu I’d tell you, but all I know is I came out here last night to work on the _Milano_ and found her in here drinking with the stereo on and she was singing really badly off key.”

The two annoyances were quiet for long enough that Fiona started to drift off to sleep again. When she woke up she was back in the pilot’s chair, she assumed she was still on the _Milano_ , but she couldn’t be sure. There was movement on the deck below and she tried to stand up, the room was still spinning but her stomach didn’t lurch. Moving to the ladder to get to the deck below she moved slowly with her eyes closed so she didn’t lose her grip while she climbed down. When her feet touched the floor below she stood there a minute holding onto the ladder with her eyes closed.

“Fi? Come on, sit down. I got some green shit Tullk made for you. He said it’d make you feel better,” Peter was sitting at the table in the main cabin of the _Milano_ with the holoscreen above him set to some Xandarian Worldmind news feed and the volume on low. There was a glass in the middle of the table with the ‘green shit’ he referred to in it and a pink straw sticking out of it and he was holding a coffee cup.

She was fairly sure if Tullk had made it, knowing he was Scottish, it really would help her hangover so she sat down at the table with Peter and pulled it toward her taking a sip when it reached her mouth. “Oh god, no wonder his people are always drunk.”

“That good huh?” Peter grinned sheepishly.

“It tastes like day old ass.”

Peter squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head quickly while making gagging sound. He studied the cup in his hands for a minute before lifting his head to look at her again. “Yondu tried to carry you out of here last night but you screamed bloody murder.”

Her eyes held his and she was proud of the fact that she held the tears back for the moment.

“I made him leave you here and told him I’d call him when you woke up.”

She looked into her glass and drank some more of the disgusting drink Tullk made for her. “How did Tullk know to make this?”

“Kraglin and Yondu are in control going over some information they got so I called Tullk on the com and asked him to bring me something for when you woke up. I didn’t want to leave you here alone.”

“Thank you,” Fiona smiled down into the disgusting green drink that had the consistency of snot and something in her broke. Tears started to run down her face again and she whispered, “I hope you know just how proud I am of you, and how much I love you.”

Peter looked a little stunned and unsure how to handle her crying, so he sat there holding his cup on the table and watched her, “I know that Fi. What’s wrong?”

“I just made a mistake,” Fiona said and sucked down some more of the green snot drink while she considered how to hide from Yondu until he was off ship again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TheWildOmega, not sure if this is what you had in mind but I was in the process of writing it when I saw your comment. Hope you like it. :O)
> 
> Keep the prompts coming. Anything you want to see? I may not write it in right away, but I promise I will get to anything you send my way.


	18. Breakup or Makeup?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some feels for this chapter.

Yondu tried carrying Fiona off the _Milano_ but she screamed at the top of her lungs like someone was killing her. Peter finally made Yondu put her back down and promised he would call the worried Centaurian when she woke up and was coherent. He’d been in control most of the next morning and by the time it was nearing the end of first watch he still hadn’t heard from Peter. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to have a lot of time before he and Kraglin had to head back off ship for another scouting run with the new information he’d gotten from their mark the night before. His skin was still crawling from that encounter and he needed to be with Fiona to remove that memory from his brain. It wasn’t that there was actually anything wrong with the woman, he was sure she would be very appealing to someone else, but the only woman he wanted was Fiona.

Sex used to be a tool to get a job done when he needed information, or for stress relief with the bots. When the need arose to get the information out of the Krylorian woman the easiest way was seducing her since nothing else had worked and she had latched onto him for some reason. He really didn’t think it would be a big deal but then again he hadn’t been with another woman, bot or otherwise, since he and Fiona had been together. It felt wrong somehow, even though it had only been part of the job, but he’d already determined if a situation like that came up again he was sending Kraglin in. That boy could use some real female companionship and at least he wouldn’t have to fake enjoying it to get information.

He sent Kraglin ahead of him to the _Whirlwind_ and he stopped off at the _Milano_ to find out why Peter hadn’t called him yet. The hatch was open with the ladder down on the boy’s ship and he could hear his music playing quietly. When he entered the main cabin he found Peter sitting at the table there with his headphones on and he was rhythmically tapping on his Walkman which was hooked to his belt. As soon as the boy saw Yondu though he turned the Walkman off and motioned him to be quiet.

Peter stood up and walked Yondu toward the back of the ship. “She’s asleep in the pilot box again. What the hell did you do to her Yondu?” The boys voice was gravelly and upset.

“Boy, I don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout. I ain’t done nothin’ to that woman, you oughta realize I wouldn’t hurt her,” he snarled at the young man.

“Yeah, I know that, but she’s pretty upset about something. I tried asking her what happened and all she said was she made a mistake.”

Yondu pressed his fingers into his eyes and shook his head, “I don’t have time fer this right now. Kraglin and I are doin’ a scoutin’ run. Jus’ keep an eye on her will ya son?”

“Yeah, but you gotta fix this.”

“I know, an’ I will soon as I figure out what the hell this is,” he told Peter who was looking up toward where Fiona was.

He spent another week chasing Fiona around the ship and missing her by minutes most of the time. She seemed to be actively avoiding him and he had started trying to work out reasons he could confine her to her quarters just so he could talk to her. There was no way he could fix whatever this was if she wouldn’t talk to him and he wasn’t about to give up just because she was being stubborn. If she was doing all of this hoping he’d give up on her she was sadly mistaken.

Finally, one evening he was on ship and didn’t need to be in control or anywhere else and he found her in their room when he walked in. Smiling at his good fortune he noticed she bristled like she was ready to run, but he was between her and the door and he planned to keep it that way until she talked to him. “Darlin’ I was really startin’ ta worry ‘bout ya.”

“Why Yondu? What do you care?” She snapped, her tone sullen and hurt, but her eyes flashed with anger.

He didn’t understand why she would ask something so ridiculous, “Fiona, ya know I care, ya know how I feel.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose she squeezed her eyes shut, “I thought I did. I guess all I was all along was just a convenient piece of ass to you.”

Her words hurt and shocked him, and more than anything pissed him off that she would ever think that was all she was to him, “What the flarking hell is wrong with you woman? That ain’t never what you been ta me.” He moved toward her but she backed away when he reached for her making him take a step back with his heart in his throat. “Why ar’ya mad at me Fiona?”

“You had sex with another woman didn’t you?” She asked in a very small, quiet voice.

That’s what this was all about? He was relieved and started to chuckle while shaking his head, “Darlin’ that was jus’ part a’this job.”

A sound came out of the woman in front of him that he’d never heard from her before and she pointed a shaking finger at him, “Asshole!”

He stopped laughing immediately and studied her face for a few minutes, she looked genuinely anguished over this, “Okay, Fiona I’m tryin’ to be patient but I don’t know what I did wrong here. Ya gotta help me understand.”

“Yondu, do you love me?”

“A’course I do Fiona,” from his perspective that was a silly question, but if he really thought about it except when they’d rescued her off Halfworld he’d never told her any other time.

“Then say it,” she demanded with some heat behind her words.

Her demand startled him but he softened his expression and reached a hand out to cup her cheek. She didn’t pull back that time and melted into his touch instead like she was desperate for some kind of connection with him. Yondu made sure the sincerity was evident in his next words, “Fiona, I love ya more than my life itself.”

She stayed there, with her eyes closed, his hand on her cheek and his thumb rubbing along her jaw line. When she opened her eyes again there were tears in her eyes, “If you love me Yondu what would make you think that having sex with another woman was okay?”

He didn’t break their contact as he studied her face again, “Like I said it was jus’ part a’the job. I ain’t wanted ta be with another woman or bot since I met ya, and I ain’t been.” He emphasized his last words with a slight squeeze to her cheek. “Didn’t wanna be with her but we needed information and that was how I had ta get it. I’m guessin’ since yer upset that ain’t okay on Terra?”

“No, it’s not,” she choked out.

“Ya know, out here…” He emphasized the word here by circling the finger of his other hand in the air, “Most species ain’t monogamous. Sex is a useful tool, long as y’ain’t payin’ fer it from a livin’ being or forcin’ it on one.”

“Centaurians mate for life Yondu, and sex is only for making babies as you so eloquently put it,” Fiona pointed at him this time and backed out of his hand.

He took a deep breath then closed his eyes. “Yeah, that’s true. Centaurians don’t mate with other species either Fiona and they have a Tahlei that’s tied ta that.” He was silent for a long time, while thinking hard about what to say to her, before he opened his eyes and looked at her as he pointed to his implant. “As ya can see, I don’t. Mine was cut off by the Kree. Not having my Tahlei took all that. Kree bastards did a lot mor’n that too. Ya seen the physical scars but ya don’t know everything they did and I ain’t gonna rehash it. Took a long time for me ta accept any kinda physical contact. Stakar freed me and treated me like family, him and Aleta, like I was their kid. With all the emotion and shit. They were married, and loyal ta each other. Yer the only relationship I ever had in my life, and the only one I want. ‘Cept fer bots yer the only woman I been with that weren’t a job or an order, and the only one I want. I shoulda known better, y’ain’t lived yer life in space, and Terra is different.” Yondu dropped his hand that still hovered in the air where it had been touching her cheek. “I’m…I’m sorry I hurt ya Fiona.”

She stood there for a long time searching his eyes and finally grabbed his hand and held it between them, “I can forgive you, but it’s going to take time. You hurt me Yondu, deeply.”

“I know darlin’, and I’m sorrier than I know how to tell ya,” he told her and opened his arms for her.

She stared at them for a few minutes, tears rolling down her cheeks, and moved into him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as tightly as he could, laying his cheek on top of her head and hoped she didn’t feel the moisture from his eyes in her hair while she cried onto his shoulder.

His lips touched her ear, “I love ya Fiona, mor’n I know how ta properly show ya.”

Fiona nodded her head, “Don’t hurt me like that again.”

“Darlin’, I promise ya I never will, and I’ll spend the rest a’our lives doin’ whatever I gotta do ta make up fer what I did ta hurt’cha.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep the prompts coming. What do you want to see coming up?


	19. Just the Captain and His Woman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT WARNING: Beginning of this chapter contains smut, a little more detailed than the last time. 
> 
> This one is longer than chapters have been, I just didn't feel like I had a good place to break it up and I think I may post longer more detailed chapters coming up rather than shorter, quicker, less detailed ones.
> 
> Just a forewarning. I am writing some things OOC to the movies and tying in some things from the comics but kind of making it my own. It'll become more evident what I mean as time advances in the fic.

It had been a few months since the job that nearly broke Yondu and Fiona apart for good and Yondu had been making good on his promise to do everything he could to make up for hurting her. He still maintained the appearance of indifference toward her in front of the general crew, but he was infinitely more attentive in the Captain’s quarters than he’d ever been. At times he even went so far on a few occasions to bring back some jewel or trinket from a job which was completely new behavior. They had yet to be intimate again, she was still sleeping in flannel pants and a thermal shirt still even though Yondu was naked as always, but he was being surprisingly patient. Her patience on the other hand was starting to wear thin. Sighing as she thought about naked blue skin for probably the millionth time that day she finished ratcheting the bolt back onto the turbine she was performing routine maintenance on.

Suddenly her wrist com buzzed and Yondu’s voice came through, “Fiona, come ta the _Warbird._ ”

Rolling her eyes she put her wrench back in her tool box and carried it out to the main bay where she set it back on her rack. While she was the Head Ships Mechanic there were still a number of other Ravagers who helped with daily issues since the _Eclector_ was too large for her to do everything on her own. As soon as Yondu started assigning new crew to assist with daily tasks she realized she needed to have a way to keep everything in order and she had assigned tool racks to everyone. Tullk found it amusing that she thought they’d keep it straight but left her alone about it when he saw the other mechanics listened when she spoke and did as they were told.

She had her jump zipped down and tied around her waist again, it was one thing that aggravated Yondu to no end, but he’d never admitted if it was because he was jealous or some perceived safety issue. When she got to the _Warbird_ the hatch was open and the ladder was down so she climbed up into the small main cabin of Yondu’s M ship. He was waiting at the bottom of the ladder to the pilot box.

He took one look at her and rolled his eyes, “Go get yer leathers on. We’re headin’ to Knowhere to pick up yer medical supplies and the _Eclector_ is goin’ to Contraxia for the crew to have some down time.”

Fiona widened her eyes in surprise, “Wait. You mean just you and I are going to Knowhere?”

Yondu nodded with a grin, “Yep, now go on and get yerself ready.”

She hurried to comply, choosing her new vest to wear underneath her jacket and duster since she wasn’t sure what Knowhere’s climate was like. It took her thirty minutes to shower and dress, throw a few things into her pack, and rush back to the _Warbird_ pulling up the ladder and closing the hatch quickly _._

As she climbed the ladder into the pilot box she realized that with Yondu off ship that would leave Kraglin and Tullk in charge and she said as much to Yondu.

“Don’t worry ‘bout them Darlin’, they’ll be fine. Set yer navs for Knowhere, should be 4 jumps,” he instructed.

She brought up her navigational holopad and set their course, the shortest route was 3 jumps and would take them a few hours to get to Knowhere. If she set the course Yondu had instructed with the 4 they wouldn’t reach Knowhere until morning. When she said as much to him he just turned to her with a grin and told her to set the course for the longer route.

“Kraglin, we’re set for drop,” he said into the ship’s com.

“Copy Captain. Safe travels. We’ll meet you back here in two days,” came his First Mate’s voice.

“Copy. Udonta out,” Yondu said into the com and steered the M ship off the _Eclector_.

Once they were out in deep space and the _Eclector_ was headed to its own jump toward Contraxia Yondu set their autopilot. He turned toward her then with a sexy smile and motioned her down the ladder to the main cabin then followed her. When he was standing in front of her he took her hand and led her over to the small cabin off to the side with a large bed inside covered in furs. Suddenly she realized he’d done this just so they could have some time completely alone, something they had never had, and after the trials of the last few months they sorely needed it. Fiona didn’t hesitate, she moved into the room and removed her duster and jacket then turned back to face Yondu who already removed his own duster and jacket and set them over a chair in the main cabin. He stood there with a feral look on his face as he examined the vest she wore.

It didn’t leave anything to the imagination, but it did cover everything. When she was getting dressed she had only zipped it to the middle of her breasts so it sat partly open to him showing off plenty of cleavage. Thinking back over their years together, they’d never done this, there was never any clothed foreplay because there was always someone around. Things had always started when they were already naked in their bed. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she realized after fifteen years with the alien man in front of her she still got nervous every time like it was the very first. This time more so than any other because it had been so long and this was new.

He growled low in this throat as one blue finger ran down the v of her vest until it sat at the apex of her breasts and his fingers gripped the zipper there. “This new?”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

Yondu studied her face for a moment, “You do this fer me?”

Another nod.

He yanked the zipper down then, separating the leather that held her breasts in place. His hands pushed the leather away from her skin and his thumbs brushed over her hard-pebbled nipples making her gasp then moan when he tweaked them hard just like he knew she liked.

“Ain’t never heard a sweeter sound Darlin’,” he whispered hoarsely.

She pushed to her tiptoes then and pressed herself into him, kissing him hard, and reached down to run her hand over his erection that felt like it was made from steel. His hands reached around her to cup her ass and pull her harder into him. This wouldn’t last long she knew, but from what she heard earlier they had two days to themselves and they wouldn’t be on Knowhere long. Her hands were shaking but she reached down to undo the buttons and buckles and zippers and straps that Yondu had all over his leathers until his hands grabbed hers.

“Darlin’ yer shakin’. Yer not afraid a’me ar’ya?” He asked with some concern.

Fiona shook her head and placed her hands on his lean hips, “Never Yondu. This is just new and it’s been awhile. And…” Her eyes lifted to his and she felt the heat rise to her cheeks, “I’m a little nervous and every time with you always feels like the first.” Taking a deep breath she smiled and wiggled her hip against his erection, “I just need you inside of me.”

Yondu’s implant flashed then and he walked her back to the bed until she fell back onto it and he was hovering over her with his mouth on one breast and hand working the other. She wiggled her hips up trying to get the friction she needed but his hand left her breast and gripped her hip effectively holding her still. The man was incredibly strong, stronger than any human she’d ever known and she assumed that was both natural to his species and probably a product of his years fighting for the Kree. While she lay there marveling over his strength he’d managed to work her boots off and undo the buttons and zipper on her pants to pull them off leaving her lying under him in her open vest and her panties. He moved off her then and shed the rest of his clothes then stood in front of her with a grin as he looked at the blue of her panties. She was squeezing her thighs together and trying all she could to get some kind of friction, she was so turned on, and so in need of release she thought she might die.

He watched her shifting then waggled a blue finger in the air at her before laying his hands on her knees and used them to separate her legs. Making a ‘tsking’ sound with his tongue he smiled that feral smile of his and lay down carefully over her left side so as not to make her breathing uncomfortable but also in a way that prevented her gaining the friction she so desperately wanted. “Now Darlin’, I think we had this discussion a long time ago. You wanna come, it’s by my hand, tongue, or cock, ‘less I tell you to touch yourself.”

“Gods Yondu, please…”

She watched as that same blue finger he waggled in the air at her moved slowly down her sternum, over her navel, and skimmed over her panties until it reached the elastic between her inner thigh and lips there. That damn finger just barely reached under the elastic and moved the cloth to the side where his thumb held it in place and said finger teased her flesh there then making her moan long and loud. There was no one on the ship to hear her so Yondu didn’t have to cover her mouth with a hand as he normally would. When he dipped that same finger inside of her she felt her body clench hard around it reminding her of how empty she’d felt without him.

Her hands gripped his shoulders then and she gave him a desperate look, she wasn’t above begging in that moment if that’s what she had to do. “Please Yondu.”

The man above her smiled then, lifted the finger that was just inside of her to his lips and licked it clean while she watched wide eyed and desperate. Then he braced himself on one elbow and reached his other hand down to move the cloth of her panties aside again. Damn him, he brushed a finger over her lips before she felt him shift and the head of his erection was pressing into her. Holding her eyes he flicked his hips in one quick hard thrust until he was buried fully inside of her. She could feel the tingling starting to build as he started to thrust hard and fast, and she lifted her hips to match his rhythm holding onto him as tightly as she could. Light exploded behind her eyes and she could see his implant flash as his teeth came down on the sensitive flesh between her neck and shoulder making her cry out and arch her back. They crashed into their release together, hard and desperate, her entire body alive and on fire and she would swear they were glowing but knew that was just an aftereffect of the mutual orgasm. They spent the next twelve hours like that in bed, tangled in each other, making up for the time and connection they’d lost to so stupid of an action and misunderstanding.

Finally, they had to get up, shower, and dress so they could eat more than just protein bars and land the _Warbird_ on Knowhere to pick up the medical supplies Fiona needed. The planet of thieves and cutthroats had been the closest outpost they could go to in order to get some of the medications Fiona needed to restock. Since she wasn’t a doctor some of the things she used had to be obtained on planets that didn’t regulate those things. She landed the ship, impressing Yondu with her finesse, and he closed the ship up so no one could sneak on board or steal her. He actually took her hand as they walked from the ship to the medical supply shop they were going to.

When they got there Fiona gave the shop keeper a list of the supplies she needed and wandered his shop while he went to gather the items on her list. Yondu was standing near the entrance reviewing something Kraglin had sent him on his com. She wasn’t sure why but she was drawn to one corner of the shop where a long silver cylinder like pod with a viewing window on it’s lid sat. It looked a lot like the cryosleep chambers she remembered from the movie _Aliens_ but there were various monitors on the lid as well as leads and arms inside the chamber. When she laid a hand on it her fingers started to tingle and suddenly a screen popped up from the tube and she could clearly see an older Peter floating in deep vac without his mask on. He was holding someone smaller than he was, but all she could see of that person was a bit of black leather. Moving her hand the screen went away and she frowned at the pod.

She placed her hand back in the same spot on the pod and the screen popped up again, this time Peter was flying away from a crumbling planet but someone else was holding on to him. Someone with blue hands. Once again Peter didn’t have his mask on. Snatching her hand back she searched the shop frantically for Yondu who looked her way at the same time her eyes landed on him. He frowned and walked over to her.

“Y’alright Darlin’? Ya look like ya seen a ghost.” He put his hands on her shoulders and studied her face with concern evident on his while she stared at the pod.

“I…” Her hands were shaking and she grabbed his hand and put it on the pod in the same place then pulled her hand back. Nothing happened. She looked up into his confused ruby eyes, “Do you see anything above that pod?””

“No Darlin’. What’s goin’ on?” His fists were on his hips then and he was looking between her and the pod and his implant was flashing.

“I’m not sure, but whatever this thing is we have to take it with us,” she turned as the shop keeper approached them with her holopad and handed it back to her.

“All of your supplies are loaded on the hover board by the front,” the transplanted Xandarian told them, then looked to the pod that caught Fiona’s attention. “I see you found this cryorepair pod.”

“Cryorepair?” Yondu asked and looped his arm around Fiona’s shoulders to hold her close to his side, she was still shaking.

The man nodded, “Yeah, there’s some planets that’s just getting their space legs and still using cryopods for long space jumps. Few of them were overfreezing their crew and losing a lot of ‘em. One of the tech planets thought they could make some money making a pod that could fix the damage. Works pretty well from what I hear.”

Fiona nodded and nudged Yondu with her elbow looked at him expectantly. He narrowed his eyes at her but something in her expression must have told him how important this was to her. Emitting a low growl he looked back to the shop keeper, “How much ya want fer it?”

“Normally goes for two hundred thousand units,” the man told him.

Yondu bristled and pursed his lips, “You an’ me both know that ain’t true and ya probably got it for less than a quarter a’that.”

The man shrugged, “Had to try at least. One seventy-five?”

“Fifty.”

“One fifty.”

“Sixty.”

“One twenty-five.”

“Seventy-five.”

“A hundred thousand is as low as I’ll go.”

Yondu looked down at Fiona whose heart was nearly in her throat, if they left there without that pod she knew it would be life altering, and not in a good way.

He shook his head and sighed before lifting his arm to enter something on his wrist com, “Fine. A hundred thousand.” Cutting his eyes to her he grinned, “Damn woman spending all my units on damn popsicles.”

Her heart calmed down and she felt like something clicked into place then.

The shop keeper chuckled a little, “I see your wife knows how to get what she wants.”

Yondu opened his mouth to say something but Fiona grinned and grabbed ahold of his belt, “I’m not his wife, I’m his mistress.”

“Ah, you really get what you want then.”

She tipped her head back and stood on her tiptoes to press herself into Yondu with her lips scant millimeters from his, and she smiled her best sultry smile, “Always.”

Fiona felt more than heard Yondu’s low growling chuckle as he pressed his lips to hers and gave her ass a slight squeeze making her core tingle. She heard the shopkeeper walk away then with a mumbled ‘Wish my wife acted like my mistress.’ They got the hover feature on the pod activated and pushed it along with their supplies back to the _Warbird_. Yondu was quiet while they loaded everything and got the ship ready to leave Knowhere. Finally, when they were on their set flight path back to their first jump point Yondu set the autopilot and turned to look at Fiona.

“Ya know Darlin’, I’d marry ya if I could,” he told her, his gaze serious.

She gave him a questioning look, marriage had never been a subject that had come up before and because he wanted their relationship kept from the crew she never even considered it as an option.

“Only the Ravager Leader can marry a Ravager Captain to his woman. Since I’m exiled I don’t have that option. That’s why I always wanted our relationship kept secret. If ya was my wife you’d be inviolate. The crew couldn’t touch ya because it’d be just like mutiny against me. I keep us ta the Ravager Code because it lets this crew know there’s consequences to their actions, and otherwise all we’d be is marauding murdering thieves no better than some of the scum on the planet we just left,” his gaze moved over her then and back up to her eyes. “I took Zoc and Nielz down with my arrow because they sold ya back to Halfworld, and that goes against the Code. The Code don’t allow mutiny, or harm to the Captain’s wife, but it don’t say nothing about messing with the Captain’s woman that ain’t his wife. If I kill any crew that puts his hands on ya or looks at ya funny they get the idea ya mean more than just crew, and eventually that leads me ta being taken out for bein’ weak or violatin’ the Code myself. Then I can’t protect ya.”

Fiona chewed her lip as she listened to him, she always thought it was some kind of shame that kept him from letting the crew know about them. She’d never realized he was trying his best to protect her in the only way he could on a ship full of men who would probably kill one another if it weren’t for the Code their Captain held them to. Before she could say anything though he reached out and thumbed her lip from her teeth.

“And don’t call yerself my mistress,” he shook his head as he turned back to the controls and brought them out of autopilot. “Don’t cheapen yerself like that. Yer my woman, my ONLY woman, plain and simple.”

His unbidden declaration made her heart soar and she smiled in his direction, “Yes Captain.”

Yondu grinned and pointed a finger at her but didn’t take his eyes from the holoscreen with their navs in front of him, “Yer bein’ a smart ass.”

“Maybe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What would everyone prefer? Shorter less detailed but quicker, or longer more detailed that might take a few days to post between Chapters?
> 
> Prompts anyone?
> 
> I forgot to mention, at some point in the future I'll be classifying this as a series and adding on some one shot fillers. Things like bits of Kraglin's story, more of Peter as a kid, Fiona's kidnapping off Terra, and some fillers that aren't in the main story but have been aluded to. I'm moving it along to get to GOTG since that's where the meat of the story will be. ;O)


	20. Third Watch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short kind of sad somewhat feels chapter.

It was third watch and Yondu was making his rounds of the ship to assure everything was buttoned up. Even though he trusted Kraglin, Tullk, Peter, and Fiona to make sure all was well he still had a crew of well over a hundred and fifty of whom less than half were truly loyal to him. He knew all it took was one of them to forget the simplest thing and everything would go to hell quickly. There were a lot of days he wished he hadn’t been exiled and his clan still had the backing of the other Ravager clans. If that had been the case he could have had a much smaller crew like he’d originally planned. The Eclector was a huge ship but most of the space was taken up by all the M ships they had. Even so realistically the ship could be run on a crew of 40 to 50 like he’d originally planned but it seemed they took on new recruits like fleas were attracted to a dog.

He made his way to control where he found Peter sitting in the pilot’s chair, feet up on the panel in front of him, and his headphones around his neck with his music playing quietly. The boy, who at twenty-five was no longer a boy, was watching the holoscreen in front of him and making adjustments to their flight path based on what he was seeing. Retch was supposed to be on duty with him but he was nowhere to be seen. Yondu came very close to losing his temper and reminding the boy that two of the crew were supposed be on watch in control at all times. However, over the years Fiona had tempered him with their boy so that he didn’t react quite so harshly all the time and he’d learned to count to ten if he felt like he was going to blow up. Most of the time it worked. He and Peter didn’t yell quite so much at each other anymore.

“Son,” Yondu called making Peter look over to him from where he sat.

“Hey Yondu. Making your rounds?” He grinned and dropped his feet to the floor.

“Yeah,” Yondu looked around.

Peter shook his head, “If you’re looking for Retch he never showed up for his watch.”

“Damnit Peter, why didn’t you call me? I can’t have crew not showing up for duty,” his tone was even and he was pretty sure Fiona would be proud of him.

“Yondu I can manage third watch in control by myself,” Peter explained calmly as he leaned forward to the holoscreen again to examine something, then sat back and looked over to Yondu. “Besides I can’t stand that guy. He’s disgusting, and he talks way too much.”

Yondu held back the chuckle that was threatening at the boy complaining about someone else talking too much. “I understand that son…” He sighed, pressing his fingers into his eyes and sat in the co-pilot’s chair next to the boy, “There’s a reason we always keep two crew on watch in control. If I make an exception for you then there’s a chance the rest a’the crew is gonna think they can do it and one a’the idiots who can’t manage third watch on their own is gonna fall asleep and run us into an asteroid or worse.”

Peter looked like he was thinking over Yondu’s words and nodded, “Okay, yeah, you’re right. Sorry Yondu, I hadn’t thought about it that way. If it does ever happen again I’ll call you or Kraglin.”

“A’right son,” Yondu said and settled himself back in the co-pilot’s chair.

The boy raised an eyebrow and looked over at Yondu with an amused smile, “You’re going to stand third watch with me?”

“Been a long time since we stood watch together, why not?”

“Better let Bones know before she comes up here and yells at us both,” Peter snickered.

Yondu’s eyes widened as he considered the likelihood of Fiona coming up there to yell at them and lifted his wrist com amidst the boy’s quiet laughter. He punched in Fiona’s code and waited for her to answer.

“Captain?” She sounded like she may have been asleep, “Everything okay?”

“Yeah Fiona, just letting you know I’ll be in control with the b…” He stopped for a second and looked over at Peter whose expression had hardened, “I’ll be in control with Peter for third watch.”

“Copy that Captain.”

Her tone made him grin, “Yer bein’ a smart ass again.”

“It’s possible.”

When Yondu clicked off his com he realized Peter was watching him with a thoughtful look.

“You really do love her don’t you?” He asked quietly.

“Yeah son, I do,” Yondu leveled Peter with a serious gaze then. “I know I don’t do the best at showin’ it. Ta her, you, or Kraglin, but yeah, I do.”

Peter sat forward then with his Walkman in his hands and ran his fingers over it. He was silent for so long Yondu was afraid he’d made a mistake by saying what he did. Finally, after what felt like forever Peter lifted his eyes to Yondu, “My dad wasn’t ever coming for me was he?”

Yondu didn’t want to lie to the boy but he didn’t want to hurt him either so he chose what was mostly the truth. “I don’t know son.”

The young man sighed and replaced the Walkman on his belt. He scanned the holoscreen in front of him again and sat back with his hands on his knees, eyes staring at his hands. “Do you think he’d be proud of me?”

That was a question Yondu couldn’t answer for Ego. Frankly he thought the only way the self-proclaimed god would be proud of anything would be if it served his own purpose and he never wanted to find out if Peter could. He fully believed that would end badly for them all. So Yondu did the only thing he could, he answered for himself without actually admitting it to Peter. “Son, I don’t think he could be more proud ta have a boy like you.”

“My mom called me her little Star Lord, said my dad was from the heavens and was going to come for me someday,” he smiled then and looked over at Yondu. “I thought you were my dad when you first picked me up. Couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t blue for the longest time.” Peter held his hand up to emphasize and rolled his eyes at Yondu who chuckled at him. He put his hand back down and stared at the holoscreen in front of him before speaking again. “I’m sorry I haven’t always appreciated what you’ve done. Especially when you’ve been doing it for someone else’s kid.”

Yondu’s heart seized at Peter’s words, and he wanted to tell the boy he’d been doing it all along because as far as he was concerned Peter was his kid, his boy, not Ego’s. He wanted to tell Peter about Ego, what the maniac had done, why he wanted him, and why Yondu had taken him from Terra in the first place. But he didn’t because he knew that would just hurt the boy and probably strain their relationship even more. Peter was safer if he was never in one place. If he’d stayed on Terra eventually Ego would have found someone else to pick him up and bring him to the living planet. Yondu wasn’t naïve enough to believe the few kids he’d delivered to the Celestial were the only ones, or that he had been the only one Ego had hired to find his children across the galaxies. He just hoped that somehow he could continue to keep Peter safe from the madman who wanted to take over the universe.

They sat there for the rest of third watch just listening to the music coming from Peter’s headphones. Both lost in their own thoughts. It was the beginning of the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's given me a prompt you haven't seen yet, I haven't forgotten you. I've got most of this story written, and any prompts not yet written in are either coming up before the end of this one, will show up in a one shot as part of this series, or are being written into the next part of the story. 
> 
> Keep the prompts coming though! And let me know how y'all are liking the direction this is going so far.


	21. Separation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter. Fair warning, Peter shows his ass in this one.

Over the next several years Peter grew more and more independent, and from Yondu’s perspective more and more insolent. The independence at first was fine, he’d plan and execute jobs on his own but always turned the units over to the clan. After several years though the independence turned sour and became more rebellion than anything else. He was keeping the take from his jobs to himself and spending less and less time on the _Eclector._ By the point he’d passed his thirtieth birthday Fiona had a hard time keeping Peter and Yondu’s tempers down and they were back to constantly yelling at each other. Even Kraglin couldn’t keep the peace between them any longer and the brotherly relationship he’d always shared with Peter descended into resentment and more yelling. It was almost like something in Peter had cracked and he suddenly hated the people he’d grown up with.

Fiona was in the M ship bay one day working on the _Whirlwind_ when she saw the airlock open and the _Milano_ coming through the force field to land in it’s assigned docking area. She could see some blaster damage to one of the wings and what looked like a black mark to it’s tail. Wiping her hands off on her jump that was tied around her waist she watched the hatch pop open and the ladder being pushed down. When Peter came into view he looked frazzled and his hair was sticking up everywhere. In the last four years she hadn’t seen much of him and she sorely missed the family they’d once been.

“Hey Fiona,” he said as he walked by her and out of the bay.

That was how she’d known things weren’t the same. He didn’t call her Bones or Fi anymore, it was always Fiona, and Yondu had started calling Peter by his last name instead of referring to him as son. Sighing she pushed the rolling ladder over to the _Milano’s_ wing and climbed up onto it to assess the damage. Kraglin had taught her how to use the hoverboards he used when he needed to get up on top of one of the ships but after falling off of it the last time she opted for what she considered a safer option. Her nanos still weren’t working like they had been before she’d been taken back to Halfworld and Kraglin had exhausted everything he could think of to fix them. Peter had tried as well, even went so far as to find anyone he could that knew anything about nanotechnology, but when Fiona collapsed a few years ago with a seizure he stopped. The seizure had scared Yondu more than he’d openly admitted, and after some scanning Fiona and Kralin were able to assure him it was simply a malfunction in one of the nanos that caused it. It was then that Fiona stopped being Bones or Fi to Peter.

Fiona brought herself out of her thoughts and went back to assessing the damage on the _Milano’s_ wing. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and was mostly just cosmetic but would still need repair to prevent any wobble and further damage to the wing. She climbed down and went to her rack to get the tools she needed to fix it and went about repairing the damage. An hour later the wing was repaired and she was just coming down the ladder again when Peter walked back out.

He still wore his Ravager leathers identifying him as part of Clan Udonta despite all of his assertion that he was on his own now. That gave Fiona some hope that things could be reconciled. After all if he’d wanted to completely severe ties with them she really didn’t think he’d wear Yondu’s colors or return to the _Eclector_ at all. She started to walk up to him and noted he looked irritated as she stood in front of his ship with his hands on his hips.

Angry hazel eyes met hers, “I could have fixed that myself you know.”

She’d never raised her voice to Peter, not when he was a child and not since he’d grown too big for his britches, but she was certainly tempted then. But she didn’t. As she always did she swallowed her pride and irritation and met his gaze calmly, “I know that Peter, I was…”

“You were just what? Thinking I can’t do anything myself? I’m just as good as you are.”

“Sweetie I know that, and I know very well that you can do it yourself,” she told him, something in his demeanor was off, wrong, not even the Peter who had grown independent, but different and not in a good way.

“Then damnit let me do it myself! I don’t need you always stepping in to fix shit for me like you’re my mother,” he snapped, his eyes glowing an odd blue.

Fiona froze, something was really wrong and she didn’t want this to escalate and get worse. “Peter, I know I’m not your mother…”

He turned then, eyes flashing that weird blue again, and pointed at her, “No! You’re not! Yondu stole me from my family, kept me from my real dad, and bought some prostitute he found on Contraxia that looked like my mother to keep me compliant. My mother died on Terra!”

Her heart clenched at his words, she knew there was something else going on, knew this was not her Peter, but it hurt all the same. She could see he looked just as shocked by his own words as she was and she took his momentary hesitation to reach out and grab his forearm hoping to reason with him. As soon as she touched him though her vision clouded over and she saw an older grey-haired man sitting in a large white room with a dark eyed woman with antennae sitting next to him. Her antennae were glowing and Fiona could see the man was holding the woman’s hands and was saying something. Suddenly she felt like her hand was burning and she yanked it away from Peter’s skin. He was looking at her in shock but before she could say a word he turned and stalked back to the _Milano_ where he boarded his ship, pulled up the ladder, and closed the hatch. A few minutes later the airlock was opening and the _Milano_ was taking off through the force field back into open space.

Fiona stood there staring after Peter long after the air lock had closed wondering just what the hell was going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be a few more short chapters posted over the next few days depending on how I move into GOTG. Some of this is part of the larger story and belongs here rather than in a one shot.


	22. Ronan and the Orb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I do not own any of GOTG, any dialogue from the movie belongs to James Gunn and his wonderful writing.**

Fiona never told Yondu about the argument she had with Peter, or the vision she had when she touched him. Tullk happened to be passing the M ship bay and heard Peter’s final words but Fiona had begged him not to tell Yondu. Things were strained enough between Yondu and Peter and she didn’t need it getting worse. Granted, Tullk was not happy about her request but she was essentially his little sister and he would do most anything she asked of him. He did tell her he was going to pound Peter into the ground the next time he encountered the boy though.

They didn’t see Peter for several months after that until the broker contacted Yondu about a job and he needed Peter’s help. Apparently, there was a buyer looking for an orb hidden on Morag and Peter was closer to the abandoned planet and already had some information on it. Fiona didn’t say much to Yondu about him working with Peter but she knew somehow it wasn’t going to turn out as he expected it to.

When they got to Morag Fiona stayed aboard the _Eclector_ with Tullk in control while Yondu went to the planet’s surface with Kraglin, Horuz, and six other Ravagers in the _Warbird, Whirlwind,_ and _Starhammer._ It wasn’t a shock to Fiona when Yondu came back fuming that Peter had already taken the orb off Morag and wasn’t there. Several days later after making their way to Xandar and talking to the broker they were on their way to Knowhere. Her head kept buzzing and Fiona was feeling a greater sense of dread the closer they got to finding Peter and the orb he had stolen. Yondu was so worked up over Peter’s most recent betrayal that he had barely been in their room for her to have any kind of private discussion with him so she kept how she was feeling to herself.

When the _Eclector_ came into orbit around Knowhere Yondu and Kraglin took their M ships and the Ravagers to the planets’ surface to find Peter and bring him on board. Fiona stood in front of controls’ window looking out at what was left of the severed head of the Celestial that made Knowhere what it was. She had no idea how long she was there when she saw a Kree battleship, which she later found out was the Dark Aster of Ronan the Accuser, come into view and a fleet of their own drop ships descended on the planet. Yondu returned not long after that and joined her at the window to watch the pitched battle below them, their own army of Ravagers surrounding the _Eclector_ to protect it from attack. Still hoping, she supposed, to bring Peter on board with the orb they were looking for.

Suddenly the ships com was filled with Peter’s voice, “Youdu. Yondu! This is Quill. My coordinates are two, two, seven, eight, three, two, four. Just outside Knowhere. If you’re there, come get me. I’m all yours.”

Yondu directed the Ravager in the pilot’s seat to move to Peter’s coordinates and he looked angrier than she’d ever seen him but couldn’t figure out why. Peter had pulled stunts like this before, they yelled and argued, but Yondu never looked as furious as he did then. His ruby eyes found hers and he glanced behind them quickly then looked back to her.

“I coulda let just about anythin’ he said ta me or ‘bout me and what I did go.”

Her eyes widened when she realized somehow he’d heard about what Peter said to her. He shook his head and pointed out the window and when she turned to look she saw Peter floating in deep vac holding a green woman who was wearing his mask. It was her first vision from Knowhere when she and Yondu found the cryorepair pod. She turned wide terrified eyes to the man next to her who gave the command to have the tractor beam pull the two into airlock.

Fiona stood there frozen for too long before she finally rushed down to where Kraglin was just opening the door to the airlock. Peter was on the floor over top of the green woman and they appeared to be discussing something.

“Welcome home Peter,” Kraglin said with his electro blaster leveled at his estranged brother.

Kraglin moved into the airlock and pulled Peter to his feet, pausing next to Fiona before they passed her. She wasn’t sure just how Peter would react but she needed to reassure herself he was really okay and reached a hand up to touch his cheek. His eyes met hers and they reflected surprise, pain, and shame all in the same look. Fiona didn’t say anything as another vision over took her. This time she saw Peter surrounded by purple light, his flesh torn apart, holding the hand of the green woman with two others with them. When her vision cleared she was in the hallway by herself and she could hear the sound of Yondu and Peter yelling on the deck above her. She ran up there to find them facing off with each other.

“Oh will you shut up about that! God! Twenty years you’ve been throwing that in my face. Like it’s some great thing, not eating me. Normal people don’t even think about eating someone else. Much less that person having to be grateful for it. You abducted me man. You stole me from my home and from my family,” Peter yelled at Yondu.

“You don’t give a damn about your Terra. Your scared because you’re soft, in here.” Yondu pounded on his own chest. “Here. Right here.” He reached out to Peter’s chest and then the green woman interrupted them.

“Yondu, listen to me. Ronan has something called an Infinity Stone.”

“I know what he’s got girl.” Yondu looked to the green woman and Fiona could feel her vision clouding again.

She backed out of the room quickly before she was overwhelmed and made her way to med bay to try to get herself under control. If she collapsed in front of all of the Ravagers in that room she’d be screwed and there’d be nothing Yondu could do to help her. Fiona was starting to believe she was crazy or there really was something wrong and she just couldn’t find it. It felt like days that she paced med bay, back and forth, the same path, over and over. There had to be some kind of connection with these visions she was having. One had already come to pass and she realized she was only seeing a piece of what was going to happen but how did it all fit together? Was there some warning she was missing?

“Fiona!” Yondu’s voice came through her com. “Get ta the command room, now!”

Fiona rolled her eyes but ran to the command room where she found all of the Ravagers gathered with the holoscreens down and turned on to show various maps. Peter, the green woman, a raccoon, a tree with a face, and a grey man with red designs drawn all over his body were there as well. She looked around and wondered when the hell they got there.

“’Bout damn time ya decided to join us,” Yondu snapped from his chair facing the holoscreens.

She narrowed her eyes at him and almost, almost, snapped back but everyone was looking at her including Peter. Instead she chose a small lie, “I apologize Captain, I was checking med bay in case we needed it.”

He nodded and jerked his thumb behind him and she moved to where he directed her, effectively placing her between himself and Kraglin away from the grey man standing to Kraglin’s other side. Peter and the green woman, whose name she learned was Gamora, explained that Ronan the Accuser, a Kree with a vendetta against Xandar and ties to Thanos, intended to use the Infinity Stone he now had to destroy all of Xandar. Gamora further explained that the stone would react to anything biologic and that all Ronan had to do was touch the stone to the planet surface and it would destroy everything. Most of the Ravagers would be using their M ships to keep Ronan from reaching the surface of Xandar. Rocket, the raccoon apparently, was going to lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster’s starboard hull while Peter’s team, along with Yondu, flew inside to take out Ronan.

“Won’t there be hundreds of Sakaaran soldiers inside?” Kraglin asked.

The grey man looked at Kraglin and said in a very serious tone, “I think of Sakaarans as paper people.”

Kraglin grinned at him and bumped his fist against the man’s arm which just prompted the man to give him a menacing look. Fiona rolled her eyes and returned to listening to Gamora and Peter go over the rest of their plan for taking out Ronan and retrieving the orb. She knew Yondu would demand Peter give him the orb once all was said and done and she also knew that couldn’t happen. Yondu didn’t have the loyalty of his entire crew and they’d be very likely to mutiny if Yondu got ahold of the orb and he didn’t sell it. The orb had to go somewhere that no one could ever get to it again.

Fiona was going to be flying an M ship assigned to keeping Ronan from the planet’s surface with Tullk manning the guns on the ship. Yondu apparently wasn’t happy about it but they needed all their available pilots and thanks to Peter she was one of the best they had. As everyone was making their way to the ships they were assigned to Fiona managed to catch up to Peter who was walking with Gamora, the tree, and grey man, who she finally learned was Drax, to the _Milano_.

“Peter…” she caught hold of his sleeve to stop him, thankfully no visions overwhelmed her that time. Perhaps she’d seen everything she needed to see of what was coming.

“Hey Bones,” he said in a quiet voice.

Gamora stopped next to them and gave Fiona a questioning look.

Fiona wasn’t sure how to take Peter’s use of the nickname he’d called her for so long until things went to hell, but she didn’t have time to dwell on that. Looking between the two of them, then towards Yondu to assure he couldn’t hear her, she spoke in a low voice, “You cannot let Yondu have that orb.”

Peter shook his head. “I thought you trusted him,” he said in a sour tone.

She took a deep breath and moved her eyes around to the Ravagers milling around, “I trust Yondu, Kraglin, Tullk, and you. If you give him that orb, and he doesn’t sell it we’ll have a major problem.”

Gamora looked between the two of them with some concern and Fiona turned as Tullk started to walk their way with a savage expression on his face. Fiona put her hand out toward him to stop an argument and a yellowish energy formed around her hand like a shield when Tullk’s chest touched her palm. She pulled her hand back and shook it but not before Tullk stopped and looked at her in surprise. Shaking her head at him she hoped he understood she needed him to back off in that moment, and he must have because he took a step back. Turning back to Peter she noted he was staring at her with wide eyes, as was Gamora.

“Just figure out a way to keep the orb from Yondu,” she plead with him then turned away and grabbed the lapel of Tullk’s jacket to pull him with her to their ship.

“Wha’ the hell was tha’ lass?” Tullk demanded when they settled into their ship and took off for their assigned part of the mission.

Fiona was just as stunned as he was and just shook her head. She didn’t have time to think on the implications of her vision or the energy as she dodged Kree drop ships and Tullk fired on them. At one point the Dark Aster broke through the shield the Nova Corps ships had created and she followed Rocket and Kraglin to position their ship to fire on the Kree battleship. Somehow one of the Kree drop ships got through and fired on them shattering the glass of their pilot box and sending them spinning out of control. She tried her best but couldn’t bring them back under control and they were thrown out of the falling ship. Tullk grabbed and held onto her as they fell trying his best to position them to shield her with his body from the impact with the ground. Fiona panicked as the saw the ground coming up under them and instinctively put her hands out to break their fall while tucking her face into Tullk’s shoulder. She felt their impact and heard what she could only describe as an energy wave then they bounced up into the air and hovered there for a second before dropping to the ground. Fiona felt a shock wave underneath of her and when she tried to get up she was knocked out cold.

“Lass! Lassie! Wake up!” Tullk was shaking her and she could hear a whooshing sound in the background.

Fiona sat bolt upright and saw they were on a small rise with the second Quadrant behind them. In front of them was a swirling purple and black cloud and Yondu was standing back away from it with Kraglin and the other Ravagers. She felt like she had been run over by a steam roller, reinflated, and run over again. The purple cloud suddenly dissipated and all that was left in the midst of it were Peter, Gamora, Drax, and Rocket. Moving to her knees she watched Yondu approach Peter with his hand out but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. After some discussion Peter handed Yondu the orb and Kraglin motioned the Ravagers back to their ships. Finally able to get to her feet she looked down at Peter who gave her a barely perceptible shake of his head letting her know Yondu did not have the Infinity Stone. Breathing a sigh of relief she allowed herself to be pulled along by Tullk back to the second Quadrant where he forced her along to the med bay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update may not be until later this week. The rest of what I have written currently is GOTG2 and after. But I need to write the bridge between GOTG and GOTG2 especially in light of new developments for Fiona. 
> 
> Just a fair warning, I am not writing Infinity Wars in. That's where I'll really wind up deviating from cannon, though by exactly how much I'm not sure yet. I have plans for The Ravagers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and it does not involve being disintegrated in Thanos' snap.


	23. The Truth Comes Out

After the Battle of Xandar Fiona had allowed Tullk to take her to med bay and scan her for injuries. He never even considered checking himself over which she found odd considering he would have suffered the full force of their landing when they fell from their M ship. She still could not answer what saved them from the impact. All she knew was she felt some kind of energy halt their fall and once it absorbed their momentum it allowed them to drop safely to the ground. Her eyes had been closed and her face pressed into the leather of Tullk's shoulder when it happened, so she could honestly say she didn’t know.

They made it back to the _Eclector_ and once he was assured she wasn’t injured he let her go and attend to the Ravagers who were in fact injured before he called Yondu and Kraglin. All hell broke loose then and she assured Tullk she would pay him back tenfold to which he just shrugged at her.

"I swear all three of you are like a bunch of old women," Fiona snapped at Yondu, Kraglin, and Tullk who were fussing over her and treating her like she was suddenly fragile.

Yondu narrowed his eyes and pointed an angry blue finger at her, "Fiona that weren't just a small fall."

She looked closely at Yondu then and realized he was scared and probably upset at the thought that once again he almost lost her. And she was sure he was furious with Peter for everything that happened since Morag and for not actually giving him the Infinity Stone. "I know Yondu, but I don't have an explanation for any of it right now. I honestly don't. Maybe it was the stone?"

He leveled her with a gaze that let her know he was ready to blow a gasket, "The Power Stone destroys life, it don't save it." She was a little taken off guard that he really did know exactly what it was and she was reminded that he bore a keen eye and intelligence few men possessed.

"What if it's your nanos?" Kraglin offered, eyes furrowed in thought.

Yondu and Fiona both looked at him with worried expressions.

"What are you suggesting Kraglin?" Fiona kept her voice as calm as she could but it squeaked which made Yondu's expression soften and he wrapped a hand behind her neck as she pressed herself back against the stretcher she sat on.

Kraglin ran his hand through his hair making it stick out even more and looked at the ground for a minute while he thought things over, "Well Halfworld does cybernetics experiments. I mean, I know they only had ya a few hours the second time, but they took your nanos offline fer a reason. I don't think it was entirely just to figure out how much pain ya could take. All they had to do was go back in their records from when they had ya the first time."

Tullk was studying her hands, "Do ye think ye ken replicate it?"

She shook her head, "I have no idea how to replicate something I don't even understand, and to be honest we don't even know it was me that did it."

"Had tae be ye lass. First time ye was stoppin' me from sayin' somethin' tae Quill. Second was when we fell. Less there was other times ye aren't tellin' us about," Tullk pointed out.

When she saw Yondu's eyes narrow dangerously she grabbed onto his duster, "Yondu the first time was when we were all heading to the M ships before Xandar. I was trying to stop an argument between Tullk and Peter, and when I put my hand out to keep Tullk away from Peter some kind of energy formed around my hand. As soon as he stopped and I pulled my hand away it disappeared."

Kraglin studied Fiona's hands then turned his narrowed eyes on Tullk, "What'd it feel like?"

"Like ah ran into a brick wall right in the spot her hand hit meh," Tullk replied.

Kraglin turned on the exam screen above the hover stretcher Fiona was sitting on and motioned his hand for the stretcher to lie down. Fiona rolled her eyes and humphed a little but laid flat while Kraglin set the screen on scan mode. A blue light ran over her from head to toe and back again before several images popped up on the exam screen. Bringing down another holoscreen Kraglin sent part of her scan to that holoscreen so he could focus in on certain pieces of it.

"Well, ya got more nanos than ya did before," Kraglin said and pointed at the screen where he had the scan he just did and then to the other screen which showed a scan done a few years after she came on board.

Fiona bolted upright to look where Kraglin was pointing. It looked like originally she had a nano in each major system or limb, but now they were everywhere including several in her brain. The original ones were flashing blue, some of the new ones were flashing yellow, and the ones in her brain flashed red.

"Damn things is multiplyin'," Yondu commented.

She climbed off the stretcher and walked straight out of med bay, "Okay, that's it. I'm done."

"Fiona Halloran! Get'cher ass back here," Yondu boomed at her.

"Nope, sorry," she kept right on walking until she heard a whistle and the distinctive sound of Yondu's Yaka arrow which zipped in front of her stopping her in her tracks.

While it wasn't the first time Yondu had used his arrow to make a point with her this time she was a little startled by it. She knew for a fact he'd never actually hurt her with it but she also knew if he was using it to stop her it was with good reason. So she swallowed her fear and her pride and turned to face the three of them. Yondu whistled his arrow back into it's holster but she could tell he was seconds from exploding at her.

Ever the mediator Kraglin cleared his throat, "Uh, Cap'n?"

"What is it Kraglin?"

"We can access Fiona's scans on any holoscreen, why don't we take this to the Cap’n's Quarters?" The First Mate asked calmly.

Fiona silently thanked him. That was where she was headed anyway. She needed to be someplace where she could have a full on freak out if necessary and she couldn’t do that if there was the possibility of other Ravagers around her. They turned back in the direction she had been going in the first place when Oblo caught them in the hall.

“Captain,” the young Krylorian pounded his fist over his flames and bowed his head just slightly. “We have the casualties moved to the crematory. Rest of the crew is asking when we’re having the funerals?”

“Gather their belongings and put ‘em with the bodies. We’ll have the funerals at the start of third watch t’night,” Yondu instructed him.

Oblo nodded before pounding his flames again and moved off to carry out his Captain’s orders.

They made their way quietly to the Captain’s quarters and gathered at the table in the back with all of the holoscreens up. Kraglin brought Fiona’s scans up again and this time set the holoscreens side by side so they could compare.

“Why are they different colors?” Fiona practically whispered.

Kraglin bounced his shoulders and waved his hand at the two screens, “Maybe they do different things?” He turned her way and squinted down one eye at her, “Anythin’ else been goin’ on ya ain’t told us yet?”

Yondu’s eyes found hers and when she hesitated he folded his arms across his chest and glared at her.

“I’ve had a few visions,” she faced Yondu and sighed. “You remember when we were on Knowhere and found that cryorepair pod? I made you touch it and asked if you saw anything above it?”

“Yeah?”

“I had two visions when I touched that pod. The first has already happened, it was Peter and Gamora floating in deep vac outside Knowhere before we brought them on board. The second was Peter flying away from a crumbling planet in deep vac and someone was holding onto him,” she chose not to tell him she thought that someone was him. “Peter didn’t have his mask on either time. That’s why I was so desperate to get that pod.”

Yondu nodded, “And I’m glad we had it in case we needed it fer th’boy. Even if I do wanna wring his flarkin’ neck.”

Her heart was starting to pick up knowing she was going to have to tell him about the vision that worried her the most, so she went with the other one that had already happened. “When Kraglin was bringing Peter and Gamora out of the airlock back at Knowhere I also saw Peter inside the Power Stone cloud with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket.”

“That all?” Yondu asked in a surprisingly even tone.

Fiona shook her head, “When Peter and I had our…” She glanced between Yondu and Tullk, “…Disagreement a few months ago I grabbed Peter’s arm before he could leave. When I did I had a vision of a grey-haired man sitting in a white room, he was talking and holding the hands of a woman with glowing antennae.”

Yondu’s implant flashed as he gave Fiona a hard look, “What’d the man look like?”

When Fiona described him both Kraglin and Yondu wore identical shocked looks and Yondu pounded his fist on the table in front of him.

She was even more scared than she was when she had that vision, “It was Ego wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was,” Yondu’s voice was strained and she could hear the pain there.

“He’s going to know how to find Peter now,” Kraglin said, his eyes focused on the holoscreen with Fiona’s scans on them.

“And he has a way to manipulate him,” Fiona added. “It won’t do us a bit of good to warn him will it?”

Yondu had his bottom lip pulled up into his teeth and his ruby eyes met hers as she shook his head.

“Maybe we can just try to keep an eye on his movements somehow?” Kraglin suggested.

“Ya know, that rat…”

Fiona rolled her eyes at Yondu, “He’s a raccoon and his name is Rocket.”

Yondu chuckled, “I invite ya ta tell him he’s a raccoon next time we run into the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

She couldn’t help herself, she stuck her tongue out at Yondu making Tullk grin, and Kraglin’s ears turn blue. “Maybe I will Captain.”

“Yer bein’ a smart ass again,” Yondu pointed at her.

“Maybe.”

Shaking his head he grinned and waved his hand at the holoscreens, “That rat was made on Halfworld, he seems ta know all there is ‘bout all kinds a’tech. Maybe he could figure yer nanos out.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. To be honest Yondu our relationship with Peter is already strained and I suspect Ego might have felt me.”

“Why dae ye think that lass?” Tullk finally spoke.

“My hand started to burn from touching Peter’s skin during that vision and I know Peter felt it too. I don’t know for sure but I just have the feeling that was Ego. Nothing like that happened with any of the other three visions,” she explained.

“You shoulda told me what was goin’ on when you had the first vision Fiona,” Yondu said gently.

She held his gaze for a minute working her lip in her teeth before she finally nodded, “I know. But to be very honest with you? I’m absolutely terrified. The year on Halfworld was bad enough with everything I endured for them to complete the aging slow down, sterilize and disease proof me, then implant the medical nanos. Those I could accept because with my background in engineering and as a paramedic I knew what they were doing and how they worked. This?” Fiona shook her head and waggled a finger at all three men standing in front of her, “This I don’t know how to deal with. I’m terrified. I’ve never had a vision before, I barely remembered my dreams. What if these things are inexplicably altering me? Making me into something else? I don’t just want to forget who and what I am someday because some nanobot has been programmed to make me over into some cybernetic life form. It might be flarking crazy but I love my life.”

Yondu put his hands on each of her shoulders then and gave her a very slight shake to emphasize his words, “We ain’t gonna let that happen.” His eyes held hers then and he spoke his next words very deliberately, “I ain’t gonna let that happen.”

She swallowed hard and nodded. If nothing else at least she had the last twenty-six years with the man she loved more than life itself even if she did turn into some emotionless robot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more on Fiona, her nanos, and her emerging abilities in future chapters. 
> 
> As always, prompts welcome.


	24. Mutiny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I do not own any of GOTG, any dialogue from the movie belongs to James Gunn and his wonderful writing.**
> 
> Mild allusion to smut in the beginning. Also some feels in this chapter, violence, and death.

It was a few months that they spent monitoring Peter and the Guardians of the Galaxy’s movements. Yondu admitted shortly after Fiona told them about her vision of Ego that he’d put a tracker on the _Milano_ before the Battle of Xandar. Fortunately for them when the Nova Corps rebuilt the _Milano_ after it crashed the tracker was in a piece of Peter’s ship that was salvaged. Of course, they continued to do what Ravagers do and picked up jobs as they went along. They had tracked the Guardians to the Sovereign and since it was only a few jumps away Yondu had decided to allow the crew some down time on Contraxia where they were currently orbiting. Yondu planned to go planetside to assure the madame of the Iron Lotus continued to uphold their deal made so many years ago when he took Fiona from her.

Yondu was getting dressed while Fiona laid in bed stretched out on her stomach under their furs watching him with her head resting in the crook of her arm. His back was to her as he pulled his pants up over his lean hips and she studied the heavy scarring that ran from the small of his back to his implant. Where his Tahlei used to be. She sat up and pulled the furs with her as she reached out to touch the scarring in the middle and felt him stiffen slightly and turn to face her. His pants remained open as he moved his hands to his hips and looked down on her.

Fiona frowned slightly as she stared at the fastenings he had yet to get to and lifted her eyes to his, “Do you think we’d be here now if the Kree hadn’t taken your Tahlei?”

His eyes narrowed and he moved closer to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and pulling her up to kneel on the bed in front of him. The fur fell away from her nakedness and she actually relished the feel of vulnerability to the man in front of her that suddenly overcame her when she was bared to his eyes. It was such a strange feeling, but profound somehow too knowing that she belonged only to him and as much as she was vulnerable to him he also cherished her as his equal.

“Darlin’ I honestly don’t know. But I certainly like to think that no matter what you were meant ta be mine and I’da found ya,” he told her sincerely.

She pressed herself into him then, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could, and buried her nose into the crook of his neck.

His hand came up to cup the back of her head as his other arm wound around her, holding her close, “Fiona, y’alright?”

All she could do was nod. She just had a horrible feeling of dread and doom and she didn’t want to let him go, she wanted him to stay there with her, buried deep inside of her where she knew he was safe.

Yondu moved his hands to the sides of her chest then and pulled her away from him. His thumbs barely brushing the undersides of her breasts as they rubbed back and forth over her skin. He gave her a look of concern but she just waved him off and kissed him before sitting back and pulling the furs back up around her. When he bent down to pick up the t-shirt he’d discarded on the floor where he tossed it earlier Fiona reached out a hand for it. With a quirk of his lips and shake of his head he handed it over and she shrugged into it, breathing in his scent that surrounded her when it settled into place. She sat there quietly watching him as he finished dressing, just taking in the strength of his presence and the safety she had always known and felt only with him.

He kept looking over at her like he was worried about her demeanor which she knew was probably uncharacteristic of her usual talkative bubbly nature. She couldn’t really pinpoint exactly what the issue was that night but ever since the Battle of Xandar Fiona just kept feeling like life was slipping away. Things were inexplicably changing, and not just her because of her nanos. Peter was essentially lost to them, off with his new friends as the Guardians of the Galaxy, and she feared Ego was closer to him than ever before. The crew as well had changed. There was more and more grumbling and discontent after Xandar than she ever remembered before. Yondu and Kraglin had always been able to keep even the rowdiest among them in line but now it seemed like that only lasted for as long as the Captain and First Mate were within sight or ear shot. Tullk was forever by her side if she wasn’t with Yondu or Kraglin and she’d been accosted by various crew, especially Taserface, more in the last few months than in all of the years she’d been on the ship. She’d heard the words ‘Captain’s Whore’ more than she cared to admit and frankly hadn’t admitted it to Yondu at all. Tullk had overheard a few of the comments and set the crew members straight but again Fiona begged him not to take it to Yondu who had enough to deal with.

Before leaving their cabin Yondu pressed Fiona down into the bed with a searing kiss and a promise to make her remember why she was his when he returned. He only planned to be planetside for a few hours, but that was apparently long enough for all hell to break loose.

 

Fiona sat at the table in the back of the Captain’s Quarters reviewing maintenance logs and making a list of supplies she needed when the main door opened and Yondu strode in with Kraglin and Tullk close behind him. Control was essentially above them and they often had their planning sessions for jobs or planned out navs at the very same table Fiona was currently occupying. She looked up to the three men and noted Yondu looked absolutely livid where Kraglin and Tullk were calm.

“What’s wrong?” Fell out of her mouth before she could stop the words.

Yondu just glared at her before turning away.

“We ran into Stakar Ogord planetside,” Kraglin told her and Yondu slammed a fist down on the table at the mention of his old leader’s name.

The angry Centaurian stood with his back to the three of them looking at the wall while his implant flashed angrily. She knew from experience that when his Yaka arrow wasn’t active and his implant flashed it was because his emotions were up over someone he genuinely cared about. Stakar had been family to Yondu, like a father, and she knew his exile had thoroughly devastated him. Seeing the man again after so many years probably brought up a lot of memories and pain he hadn’t wanted to rehash.                            

While the three of them waited for Yondu to calm down she noted his implant stopped flashing and he finally turned to look at them.

“Sovereign Priestess offered us a million units to bring her the Guardians of the Galaxy. Seems she hired Quill and his friends ta stop an Abilisk that was feeding itself on some Anulax batteries. The rat stole some a’the batteries and she wants ‘em back to kill the rat. Looks like the Guardians is on a little planet a few jumps over called Berhert. We’re goin’ ta get ‘em,” Yondu fumed.

Fiona’s heart nearly stopped, she couldn’t believe Yondu was actually considering what the priestess wanted. She was familiar with the Sovereign, penalty for anything they considered a slight was death, and they wouldn’t care if it was just Rocket or all of the Guardians who had been part of the theft.

“Yondu…”

“Don’t argue with me girlie, I ain’t in the mood,” he snapped then turned to his First Mate and Second Officer. “I’ll be in control.” He walked out of the Captain’s Quarters then.

“What the hell was that?” Fiona directed to the two men left standing with her.

Kraglin explained Yondu’s confrontation with Stakar and Taserface’s subsequent assertion that Yondu was soft. She knew that didn’t bode well since less than a quarter of the crew was actually loyal to Yondu anymore.

Tullk grasped her shoulder and turned her to face him, “Listen lassie, when we get tae Berhert alla th’crew is goin’ planetside tae look fer Quill an’ ‘is friends. Ye included.” Fiona looked to Kraglin who nodded. “Ye need tae stick close tae me while we’re there. It’ll be dark and I dinnae want none ah the crew getting’ funny ideas ‘bout ye.”

Fiona swallowed hard, she knew what the crew thought of her, and knew exactly what Tullk was worried about.

“We’re not gonna let any of the crew hurt ya Fiona,” Kraglin reassured her with a squeeze to her arm.

“I’m not worried as much about that as I am about what Yondu might do to Peter,” Fiona croaked out.

“Ya gotta understand, after him not givin’ the Cap’n the Orb Cap’ns gotta show the crew that he means what he says no matter who it is,” Kraglin explained calmly.

Fiona looked to Kraglin with narrowed eyes, “He’s basically your brother Kraglin. Do you really want Yondu to make an example of Peter with his Yaka arrow?”

Kraglin swallowed hard and shook his head.

“I honestly don’t think Yondu will kill Peter or his friends. But I do think we’re going to have a serious problem on our hands when he doesn’t,” she looked at both men standing in front of her. “We may have to say or do things tonight that we may not have otherwise in order to make it through and keep all of us…” She motioned to the three of them with a finger. “Yondu, and the Guardians alive.”

They nodded solemnly at her and all went to make their preparations to seek out the Guardians on Berhert.

 

Fiona walked beside Tullk through the forest of Berhert with the blaster in her hand set to electro stun. They could hear some of Peter’s music faintly in the background, it sounded to Fiona’s ears like Glen Campbell’s _Southern Nights._ She could hear gunfire and yelling and assumed the idiot Ravagers that had moved ahead of them had been ambushed. After a few minutes of that Yondu whistled and she could see red wisps of his Yaka arrow moving through the forest in front of them. When they walked into a clearing she saw Rocket standing in the center with his paws in the air, the Yaka arrow hovering in front of his head. Tullk stopped and motioned her to stay slightly behind him.

“Hey there Rat,” Yondu said to him with a chuckle.

“How’s it goin’ ya blue idiot?” Rocket countered.

Yondu bit off the end of a piece of vegetation he’d picked up and paced in front of Rocket, “Not so bad. We got ourselves a pretty good little gig here. This golden gal with quite a high opinion of herself has offered us a large sum to deliver you and your pals over to her cause she wants to kill y’all.”

The Ravagers around him laughed and nodded.

“I tell you, it was pretty easy to find you. I put a tracer on yer ship back there during the War with Xandar,” Yondu paused and looked over to Rocket.

“Give me your word you won’t hurt Groot and I’ll tell you where the batteries are,” Rocket offered in a defeated tone.

“Ha. Lucky for you my word don’t mean squat. Otherwise I’d actually hand you over.”

Taserface jumped in, “Otherwise you’d what?”

“We’ll take them batteries. There worth what? A quarter mil on the open market?” Yondu said to Rocket.

“That priestess offered us a million,” Taserface interjected. “A quarter is only one third of that.”

Yondu looked over to Taserface then, “A quarter ain’t a third…”

Gef piped in then, “A quarter is twenty-five.”

Yondu shook his head, “No…”

Gef continued, “We can’t even buy a pair of boots with twenty-five units.”

“Enough!” Yondu snapped while gesturing toward Rocket, “The point is we ain’t stupid enough to help kill the Guardians of the Galaxy. The whole dang Nova Corps’d be on us.”

“That ain’t right,” Kraglin threw out then, and Fiona could tell he was torn by what he was saying.

Yondu turned to look at his First Mate as did the Ravagers surrounding him.

“I just gotta say it this one-time Cap’n. No matter how many times Quill betrays you, you protect him. Like none a’the rest a’us much matter,” Kraglin’s face was anguished and Fiona knew there was some truth to how he felt in what Kraglin was saying. She wondered if they’d really made him feel like he meant so little to them.

There were yells of “Yeah” all around.

“I’m the one what sticks up for ya,” Kraglin continued.

“Take it easy Kraglin,” Tullk said.

“Damn straight lad. He’s gone soft. Suppose it’s time for a change in leadership,” Taserface spoke up and raised his blaster to point at Yondu along with the Ravagers around him.

The Ravagers around her, including Tullk and Kraglin, all raised theirs to point in Taserface’s direction. Yondu whistled and his arrow jumped to hover at the right side of his head.

Tullk held a blaster in each hand and pointed them across at the Ravagers standing with Taserface, “Put yar guns down now.”

Rocket had been looking back and forth at Yondu, Taserface, and the others and turned in a circle while motioning his hands down towards ground. “Whoa, whoa. There must be some kinda peaceful resolution to this fellas.” He pointed a paw over toward the forest away from all of them, “Or even a violent one where I’m standing over there.”

Taserface growled across the clearing at Yondu who started to whistle when out of nowhere blaster fire hit his implant, dropping his arrow, and knocking him out. When Fiona glanced over she saw a strange blue and purple woman standing behind them with a blaster in hand who then fired an electro blast at Rocket who went down yelling.

“Well hello boys,” the woman lowered the blaster and lifted a piece of fruit in her other hand to her mouth and took a bite almost immediately spitting it back out. She looked back at the Ravagers around her, “It’s not ripe.”

There was a lot of commotion then while the Ravagers loyal to Taserface moved in to overtake the ones loyal to Yondu. Taserface stalked over to them and Tullk discreetly grabbed part of Fiona’s jacket and pushed her towards Kraglin who took Fiona’s blaster gently out of her hand. Kraglin then took hold of her laying his blaster over her abdomen so it appeared he was holding her prisoner. When Taserface reached them he struck Tullk over the head knocking him out and when he saw Kraglin had a hold of Fiona he grinned and gripped her chin in one hand.

“What’re ya gonna do now little girl?” He snarled down at her.

Fiona growled menacingly before her vision clouded over. She saw a vision of Taserface then standing in front of a holocom, half his face in ashes, and he was on fire. When her vision cleared she smiled at him and spit in his face before Kraglin could pull her back. “You’re going to burn,” she snarled right back at him.

Taserface smiled then and headbutted her hard making everything go black.

 

When she woke up they were back on the _Eclector_ and her hands were tied behind her back, her feet were bound, and she was on the floor facing one of the airlocks. The Ravagers were all yelling around her and when she shifted herself into a sitting position and could see the space outside the ship she suddenly understood why they were where they were. Turning to look behind her she saw she was about ten feet in front of Yondu who was tied to a chair about 20 feet back from the airlock next to the grating that lead to it. He was looking at the floor in front of him like he had resigned himself to his fate and wasn’t even present in the moment. Her head was pounding and her chest was burning, if he had given up then they were lost. She tried to gain his attention but he didn’t even lift his eyes.

Tullk suddenly came into view, being dragged along by some of Taserface’s loyalists. She threw herself over toward him, locking her shoulder with his, trying to keep them from dragging him to the airlock. Fiona knew what this was, she knew what being spaced meant. Her heart was nearly pounding out of her chest as she tried her hardest to keep them from ending his life.

“Dinnae sacrifice yerself lassie. Kraglin will keep ye safe now,” he quietly and locked his eyes with hers. “I had a good long life and yer all I coulda wanted in a lil sister. I love ye,” he told her with a grin, displaying a courageous calm despite knowing the fate he was facing.

“I love you too Tullk. Shane would have been proud to know I had you as a brother,” she whispered to him before Taserface ripped her away.

The mutinous self-proclaimed Captain held her up with one hand to watch as Tullk was tossed in the airlock like he was nothing and the airlock opened sending him out into deep vac. She screamed then, screamed as viciously as she could and used all the momentum she could manage to swing her legs back and kick at Taserface who threw her off to the side. Fiona landed at the feet of Retch and Halfnut who both kicked her as hard as they could making her cry out in pain. Yondu reacted then, yelling at them to stop, and Kraglin tried to step in but Taserface lifted her up and threw her again. This time she landed at Yondu’s feet who yelled her name. She reared up and tried to go after Taserface but he turned and shot an electro stun blast at her. All of her muscles twitched, her teeth clenched together, and when the electricity finally dissipated she fell to the floor where she could see Yondu yelling something before everything went black once more.


	25. Escape To Go Fight A Planet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Allusion to sexual assault in the very beginning of the chapter.
> 
> **I do not own any of GOTG, any dialogue from the movie belongs to James Gunn and his wonderful writing.**

****

When Fiona woke up again her head felt fuzzy and as her eyes came into focus she realized she was in the mess hall, her torso stretched over a table with her pants down around her knees. Her eyes zeroed in on Halfnut who was in front of her holding her arms down and there was someone between her legs behind her. By the smell it was Retch and he was laughing and spewing his usual nonsense. She felt him fumbling around when Taserface came into view in front of her.

"Ain't got no use for Udonta's used up whore on this ship. But some of the crew’s been complaining for years we got a whore on board none of them can use. Figure the crew what wants you may as well have you for free before we sell you back to the brothels on Contraxia and they have to pay for you," he snarled at her.

“Taserface, I ain’t gonna stand fer that,” Kraglin’s angry voice came from behind the man. “Get them offa her now.”

Taserface turned and she saw Kraglin standing in the doorway looking as deadly as he did the day he helped Peter and Yondu rescue her from Halfworld. Fiona yanked hard away from Halfnut then, reared up, and struck the back of her head on what felt like Retch’s nose making him scream and stumble back away from her. Halfnut lifted his blaster toward her and when he fired she raised a hand which dissipated the blast with a yellow energy field the same as what she’d conjured when she stopped Tullk from going after Peter. She yanked her pants up and was starting to fasten them when she was hit by another electro stun blast. Once again her muscles twitched, her teeth clenched, and she froze there until she was out once again.

 

“Bones. Hey Bones. Wake up,” she heard what sounded like Rocket’s voice and felt something sharp poking her in the back.

Fiona opened an eye and realized she was lying on the floor of the brig with Rocket and Yondu nearby. Apparently Rocket had been poking her in the back with a claw trying to wake her up. Putting one hand to the floor she pushed herself up and looked around. Yondu was sitting right next to the bars looking out into the hall like he was waiting for something. When he heard her moving he turned to look at her and she saw an obvious look of relief pass over his face.

“Thank whatever gods r’out there yer awake, I was afraid they mighta fried yer circuits,” Yondu told her seriously.

“I feel like shit,” she quipped, and sat up cross legged. “What are you looking for?”

“Groot,” Rocket replied. “We sent him to get Yondu’s other fin.”

“Oh,” she furrowed her brow in confusion then it hit her why they sent Groot for the fin. “Oh!” Suddenly she realized she didn’t know who Groot was, “Who’s Groot?”

Rocket rolled his eyes, and held his paw up a few inches from the floor, “Little guy, about six inches tall. Looks like a tiny tree?”

She didn’t remember a tiny tree, she remembered a big tree from before the Battle of Xandar but didn’t remember seeing him after Peter and the Guardians used the Power Stone on Ronan.

“I don’t think she saw the Twig,” Yondu told him and tilted his head towards the bars when they heard metal scraping on the floor down the hall. He turned to look at Rocket and shook his head then stood up and started pacing the cell.

Rocket moved to stand at the bars as well and when a tiny tree literally came into view she realized who Groot was.

“That’s a desk. We told you it was this big,” Rocket held his paws about a foot apart.

“I am Groot,” the little tree said.

“Go on, take it back,” Rocket instructed waving his paws back the way Groot had come.

Fiona went to stand up and looked out into the hallway where Groot was dragging the desk behind him mumbling ‘I am Groot’ in an annoyed tone.

“Does he always cuss that much?” Fiona snickered at the little tree’s potty mouth.

Neither of them answered her and she turned her head to see Rocket was staring at her. Yondu just rolled his eyes and resumed his pacing.

“What?”

“You understand him?” Rocket asked.

“Yeah, why?”

Apparently Rocket didn’t have an answer since he just grumbled and went to the other side of the cell and sat down where he could see down the hall. It didn’t take very long for Groot to return with a severed human toe.

All three of them looked down at the happy little tree with stunned expressions.

“Tell me you guys have a refrigerator somewhere with a bunch of severed human toes,” Rocket asked.

Both Yondu and Fiona shook their heads.

“Okay, then let’s just agree to never discuss this,” Rocket returned.

Fiona moved to the back of the cell when Yondu gave Groot his Ravager badge and the little tree started going on about hats. She paced back and forth with her fingers pressed into her eyes.

“This is an important conversation right now?” She heard Yondu ask.

“Go on Groot,” Rocket said.

There was silence for a few minutes then heavy footsteps and Yondu’s voice when he spoke was dangerous, “Darlin’ why’re yer pants undone?”

She stopped her pacing and looked up to see Yondu’s furious ruby eyes and Rocket’s mildly curious expression. Looking down she realized then she had never finished fastening them after she pulled them up in the mess hall and she made quick work of last of the buttons and hooks there. Fiona didn’t want to have that conversation with Yondu right then, not with Rocket standing there, and where anyone who walked by could hear them. Pulling her bottom lip into her teeth she just shook her head and walked back to the front of the cell where she put her back against the wall and slid down it until she sat on the floor. Fiona pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and leaned forward to put her forehead down on her knees. It wasn’t long before she felt Yondu sit down beside her with his hand on her back, rubbing a path back and forth with his thumb. She leaned over into him and despite their desperate situation, not knowing what was going to happen to any of them, that small show of affection made her feel safe somehow.

Fiona turned her head on her knees to look at Yondu and his hand moved to her cheek and his thumb traced her jawline. They just sat there looking at each other for a few second when suddenly the fin they’d been trying to get was tossed into the cell at Yondu’s feet. Both Yondu and Fiona looked up to see Kraglin outside the cell holding Groot in one hand.

“I didn’t mean to do a mutiny,” Kraglin told Yondu meeting his Captain’s eyes. He looked to be in absolute agony over everything that had happened. “They killed all my friends.”

Fiona’s heart clenched at the memory of Tullk’s face as he went out of the airlock. It wasn’t like they’d be able to go back and find any of the bodies to give them proper funerals if they made it out of things alive.

Yondu sat there for a minute sharing some unspoken communication with his First Mate who had also been like a son to him. “Get the third Quadrant ready for release.”

Kraglin pounded his fist twice over his flames and put Groot on the ledge of the cell.

“One more thing,” Rocket said before Kraglin walked away. “You got any clones of Quill’s old music on the ship?”

Narrowing his eyes Kraglin looked to Yondu then back to Rocket before nodding and heading off to do as his Captain commanded. Rocket picked up the fin and walked to the back area of the cell where there were some tools on one of the counters. Groot walked over to Fiona and held out his little hands. She smiled and looked at Yondu before reaching a hand down to let the tiny little tree crawl up onto it. It was then she realized he was wearing a tiny little Ravager uniform.

“What did they do to you Groot?”

“I am Groot.”

“I’m sorry they laughed and poured alcohol on you.”

“I am Groot.”

“Yeah, Retch is a sleeze of the highest order. If I get the chance I’m going to open him up and make him eat his own intestines.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rocket staring at her open mouthed. “And they say I’m vicious.” Rocket shook his head and waved Yondu into the chair beside him so he could work on the fin.

“I am Groot.”

“What’s that?” Yondu looked to Rocket for translation.

“He said you need a new crew.”

“Huh, ya think?” Yondu asked in a mocking tone.

It didn’t take long for Rocket to remove the damaged implant and get the new one installed. By the time he was finishing up the opening notes of _Come A Little Bit Closer_ started playing over the ships speakers and they heard the cell doors open then two Ravagers came into view. Before the two could get their blasters up Yondu whistled and his Yaka arrow zipped into view and through them. Rocket and Fiona picked up the dean men’s blasters on their way out of the cell and they heard Taserface’s voice sound over the com yelling that Yondu had the fin. After that it was a trail of bodies as they made their way across the ship. When Groot and Fiona caught sight of Retch they looked at each other and Fiona nodded to the catwalk he stood on. Groot roared like only a tiny tree could and threw his roots out to pull himself up to where Retch was then threw the sleazy little man over the catwalk railing. When he came into view his eyes went wide when Fiona smiled while aiming her blaster right at his crotch and fired. Groot dropped back down next to her and she lifted him up onto her shoulder relishing the high-pitched scream Retch let out as he continued to fall. Fiona caught sight of Halfnut in the distance and fired her blaster right into his face before the Yaka arrow tore through his chest. It wasn’t as satisfying as she would have liked but at least she could say she killed the man who killed Tullk.

The four continued on to one of the command rooms where a bank of holoscreens showed them all the areas of the ship. Yondu continued to whistle his arrow around the ship to take out the crew and Fiona and Rocket fired their blasters at the ones near them. When Taserface came into view on one of the screens Yondu gave a sharp whistle and his arrow went after the man who had started it all. Yondu changed the pitch of his whistle until the arrow caught fire and Fiona watched as Taserface danced out of the way with a laugh until it zipped past him into a flammable tank behind him setting off an explosion.

“You maniac. The whole ship’s gonna blow!” Rocket looked at the screen then with wide eyes.

Yondu smiled wickedly and moved toward the door, “Not the whole ship.” His arrow returned to him and he caught it in his right hand putting it back in it’s holster at his hip.

They went to follow Yondu toward the third Quadrant, but Fiona paused and looked back at Taserface on the holoscreen. She smiled and pointed at his image there, “I told you that you were going to burn.”

Rocket stopped and looked up at her with a puzzled expression then just shook his head and mumbled something about humans having issues. When they made it to the third Quadrant Kraglin separated them from the main ship. Thankfully the third Quadrant was essentially the bow of the _Eclector_ and contained control, the Captain’s Quarters, med bay, a small M ship bay, mess hall, storage, and crew quarters. The could manage on the Quadrant indefinitely.

“Where to Cap’n?” Kraglin asked from the control station in front of the observation window where he was piloting them away from their exploding former ship.

Fiona dropped down into one of the control stations behind where Kraglin stood and looked over to Yondu.

Rocket had taken up position on one of the other control stations and pulled the nav screen toward him, “Ego.”

“No boy!” Yondu pushed back from the station where he sat to look at Rocket who was setting their course for the jumps they needed, “It ain’t healthy for a mammalian body to hop more than fifty jumps at a time.”

“I know that!” Rocket snapped.

“Well we’re about to do seven hundred!” Yondu yelled.

It was NOT a pleasant flight through seven hundred jump points and when they finally made it to the living planet they came to a sudden stop outside of its orbit. Rocket, Kraglin, Yondu, and Fiona all fell hard to the floor and poor Groot threw up whatever the little tree had consumed before they started.

“What the hell you doin’ boy?” Yondu yelled at Rocket.

“I can tell by the way you talked about him this Ego’s bad news,” Rocket returned. “We’re here to save Quill.”

“For what? Huh? For honor? For love?” Yondu mocked.

Rocket turned to look at Yondu incredulously, “No, I don’t care about those things. I’m gonna save Quill so I can prove I’m better’n him. I can lord this over him forever.” Fiona just rolled her eyes and shook her head at him this time, it was obvious Rocket cared but wasn’t willing to admit it.

Yondu stood up as he laughed and shook his head down at Rocket.

“What’re you laughing at me for?” Rocket asked, sounding hurt.

“Ah, you can fool yerself and everyone else but ya can’t fool me,” Yondu replied and moved toward the observation window. “I know who you are.”

“You don’t know anything about me loser,” Rocket threw back as he stood up.

Yondu turned to face Rocket then, “I know everything about you. I know you play like you’re the meanest and the hardest, but actually you’re the most scared of all.”

“Shut up!” Rocket snarled.

“I know ya steal batteries ya don’t need and ya push away anyone who’s willing to put up with ya cause just a little bit a’love reminds ya how big and empty that hole inside you actually is,” Yondu continued as he swaggered slowly in Rocket’s direction.

Fiona and Kraglin shared a look but stayed where they were and didn’t intercede.

Rocket balled his paws into fists, “I said shut up!”

Yondu gestured as he spoke to emphasize his words, “I know them scientists what made you never gave a rat’s ass about you.”

“I’m serious Dude,” Rocket’s tail swished behind him dangerously.

“Just like my own damn parents who sold me, their own little baby into slavery. I know who you are boy because you’re me,” Yondu told him as he moved to crouch down in front of Rocket.

The two faced off for a minute until Rocket finally spoke, “What kind of a pair are we?”

“The kind that’s about to go fight a planet I reckon,” Yondu said and moved to where Kraglin stood to release the thrusters and steer the Quadrant to orbit the planet in front of them.

“Alright, okay, good. Let’s…Wait,” Rocket paused for a second, “Fight a what?”

When Rocket looked her way Fiona just shrugged with wide eyes. She had only seen Ego in a vision, she’d never met the Celestial.

Rocket rubbed his paws over his face and grumbled again before looking up at her, “You got a drop ship with any weapons?”

“We have a construction rig Yondu used to break into the Bank of A’askavaari. It’s got drilling lasers,” Fiona told him and went to show him where it was.

“Oh yeah,” Rocket rubbed his paws together then looked over at Yondu who was talking to Kraglin. “Come on ya blue idiot, let’s go save Quill and fight a planet.”

Fiona paused for a beat then turned to Yondu and in a few quick strides caught him before he could get to the hatch for the construction rig. Taking hold of the lapels of his duster she stood on her tiptoes so they were face to face. "Bring our boy back safe Yondu. And come back to me."

Yondu motioned his head over to where Rocket stood, paws on his hips watching them, with Groot standing on his shoulder, "Rat and the Twig are watchin' us Darlin', so’s Kraglin.”

Fiona smiled, her eyes liquid, and told him in a voice full of emotion, "I don't care anymore Yondu. After all of this, things have to change."

He nodded and lifted his hands to her cheeks, "I know." Yondu kissed her then, long and hard, and she swayed on her feet when he gripped her shoulders and set her away from him. Motioning his head toward Kraglin who was also watching them, eyes wide and unsure, he added quietly, "You take care a'our other boy."

Fiona chewed her bottom lip and nodded, tears escaping her eyes then.

"Don't do that Darlin'. Chin up. Yer a Ravager Captain's woman," Yondu used his knuckles to brush away her tears.

She stood up straight and pounded her fist twice over her flames then smiled at him, "Yes Captain."

With a grin he pointed at her, "Yer being a smart ass again."

"Maybe."

Yondu chuckled and boarded the construction rig. Rocket turned away with a final shake of his furry head as he dropped down into the rig as well and Fiona secured the hatch. It wasn’t long before they heard Yondu’s voice over the Quadrant’s com.

“Drop ‘er Kraglin.”

Kraglin pulled the lever which released the construction rig from the Quadrant and she watched it steer away to the planet beneath them. She looked back to Kraglin who looked every bit as worried as she was.


	26. You Mean Just As Much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kraglin and Fiona have a heart to heart.

Kraglin stood in front of the observation window of the Quadrant watching the construction rig fly down to the planet below them. Yondu had told him to keep the Quadrant just outside of the planet's orbit, he didn't want Ego to know it was there in case things went bad. He wanted Kraglin and Fiona to be able to get away even if that meant leaving the rest of them behind. That didn't sit well with Kraglin but he promised Yondu he'd keep Fiona safe. At the end Yondu had emphasized he wanted Kraglin to keep himself safe just as much. His Captain was never very good at expressing sentiment, he'd been better with Fiona the last few years, and Kraglin wanted to believe he was just as important as Peter had been. Still Kraglin took what Yondu said to heart and just nodded before the older man walked away with a rough handed pat to Kraglin's shoulder.

"I don't have a good feeling about this," he heard Fiona mutter to his left side.

When he looked over at her she turned to walk back up the stairs past the forward control stations and plopped down into one at the center. Her demeanor was off, and he didn’t think it was just because of the current situation. They'd been in bad spots before. Kraglin had seen Fiona stressed and this wasn't it. He really studied her for a moment, realizing suddenly after so many years, that she looked a lot like his own mother had when he was little. It struck him that he'd heard Peter say the same thing a time or two.

"Cap'ns comin' back with Peter in tow," Kraglin reassured her, though he wasn't entirely sure that was what she was really worried about.

She lifted her head and looked over at him, brow furrowed, and the guilt he'd been feeling since the mutiny started overwhelmed him again.

"Fiona, I'm sorry about the mutiny and not standing up to Taserface on Berhert and what they did to the Cap'n and Tullk." His voice caught in his throat when he tried to tell her what was wearing the most heavily on his mind, so much so he had to stop and take a deep breath before he could continue. "And more than anything else I'm so, so sorry fer what those flarking assholes did to you. I promised the Cap'n and Tullk I'd protect you, and I didn't."

Her face softened and she motioned him to come and sit next to her. He hesitated, if only a second, then strode forward and sat down to her right side turning the chair so he could face her. She leaned forward and took his gloved hands in hers and looked directly in his eyes without any hesitation whatsoever.

"What anyone else did wasn't your fault." She squeezed his hands for emphasis, "Is never your fault Kraglin. The mutiny was bound to happen at some point, it's been on the verge of spilling over to that point for months, possibly years now. Yondu is a good strong leader, a good Captain..."

Kraglin swallowed hard and nodded his agreement, Yondu was a good leader, they had just had a bad crew. With a few exceptions, and the loss of those made his heart hurt.

"But he let himself get distracted first by his anger and disappointment over his exile. And then by all of this..." She waved a hand out to the planet beneath them before putting her hand back in his. "Making sure we were constantly moving around so Peter was safe from that. Making sure I was safe from the crew. Making sure you were sheltered from all of that."

Kraglin frowned at that.

Fiona shook her head, "And because of his exile he couldn't really point to us and say this is my family so don't mess with them because the code didn't really protect any of us. He worried so much about keeping those of us he loves the most out of harm’s way that he didn't have enough of himself to make sure the crew wasn't getting out of hand. You were the one keeping the crew in line, you and Tullk, that he tried to keep the rest of it away from you. But I don't think he did a very good job of that." She paused and closed her eyes for a minute. Kraglin felt her holding onto his hands and shaking slightly like her emotions were starting to get the best of her and he squeezed her hands to try to reassure her. When she opened her eyes again they were anguished and he was afraid maybe she was angry at him, but she reached a hand out to his cheek and smiled. "I hate that you felt like you didn't matter because you did, and you still do."

He squeezed his eyes shut then and dropped his head. She meant what he said on Berhert.

"You're just as much Yondu's son as Peter is. Just as much mine too, though I know I came later and when you were essentially a man rather than a boy who needed mothering. Peter needed a mother and I didn't do that all that well, but I'm not sure I ever made you feel like you meant just as much to me and for that I'm sorry Kraglin," she choked out on a sob.

It took him a minute to compose himself so that he could speak without his voice cracking like it usually did when his emotions were as close to surface as they currently were. “My momma was a lot like you, looked a little like you too, but she weren’t strong like you are. My father…” Kraglin struggled to find a word to describe the man who tortured his mother just for trying to take care of her family and scrubbed his hands over his face, “Was sadistic. He thought bein’ a man meant his family were his to do whatever he wanted to. Even hurtin’ my momma and killin’ my sisters when they were just babies. I tried protectin’ ‘em, I really did, but it weren’t no good. Eventually she just gave up. Stopped talkin’, stopped eatin’, it was like she was just a shell. He got tired of it one night and cut her throat. This knife…” He jerked his thumb in the direction of the curved knife across his back and folded his hands together between his knees while he stared at them, “Is the knife he used to take her life. Same knife I used to take his.”

When he chanced a quick glance up to her Fiona had raised an eyebrow but didn’t entirely look shocked. He’d never told her much about his childhood, just that it was difficult, but he was pretty sure she had talked to Yondu at some point.

“Cap’n…Yondu, found me on the streets of Xandar not long after. Starvin’, scared, lost. I was eleven then. He’d just been promoted to Cap’n and given his ship by Stakar. Offered me a place with the Ravagers. Told me if I worked hard maybe I’d be First Mate someday,” Kraglin grinned at the memory. He’d held that wicked curved knife out menacingly while Yondu just calmly kneeled down in front of him and reasoned with his tortured mind. “He was the best dad I coulda asked for. And when Peter came on board I started feelin’ like I had a chance to be a brother I couldn’t ever be to my sisters. Then you showed up and it was like we had a real family because we had a mom finally. Everything I’d lost I’d finally gotten back.” Shaking his head he grinned at her, “I guess I know I mattered, just sometimes felt like I didn’t as much when Peter was getting’ away with everything he did.”

She grinned at him and laughed with a roll of her eyes, “Peter frustrated Yondu more than anything. You didn’t, he is so proud of how level headed you always are.” Sitting back she tilted her head and gave him a speculative look, “The exile did more damage to Yondu’s ability to express himself than he’s ever admitted. Do you remember when Peter was about ten, I think you might have been twenty by then, and Yondu went on about how family hurts you?”

Kraglin did. It was probably one of the few times in his life that Yondu had truly disappointed him. He nodded.

“His parents sold him into slavery. Then he found a family in Stakar and Aleta and from his perspective they abandoned him too when Stakar promised he woudn’t. I think for the longest time he really believed if he didn’t treat any of us like family, or tell us how he felt, that we wouldn’t abandon him too. He knows things have to change now.”

He thought about that for a minute and in a weird way what she said did make sense. Nodding his head he stood up and started to walk back to the front control station to make sure all the ships systems were continuing to function like they were supposed to. Before he took a step though he felt a pull on his jacket sleeve and he looked back to see Fiona was also standing up. She reached out to put her arms around him and hug him tightly. Kraglin returned the gesture and closed his eyes for a second, thanking whatever benevolent god out there that she didn’t hate him.

After making sure all was still running smoothly with the Quadrant he decided to go to the mess hall to make some soup. She shook her head when he asked if she wanted anything but he decided to bring her back some of what he made for himself. When he walked back into control she was sitting at the forward middle station with her feet propped up on the panel in front of her, head back, and eyes closed. He nudged her shoulder and when she opened her eyes he held out a bowl of soup to her.

“Nursemaid,” she complained with a smile, but took the bowl from him.

He sat down at one of the stations just behind her and propped his feet up as well. After a few minutes Fiona leaned forward and ran her fingers over one of the holoscreens in front of her and _Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang_ started playing. Kraglin relaxed back and sang along while he ate his soup until something caught his attention outside the ship. He stood up and walked to the observation window and noticed there were hundreds of little golden ships dropping out of the jump point. The Sovereign. Fiona looked over at him wide eyed and he moved to her station and activated the com to Yondu.

“Uhm, Cap’n?”

They watched for a few minutes while the ships continued to drop out of the jump point and move toward the planet.

Kraglin tried again, “Cap’n?”

“What is it Kraglin?” They finally heard Yondu’s voice.

“Hey, remember that Ayesha chick?” Kraglin asked.

“Yeah, why?” They could vaguely hear Peter and Rocket in the background.

Kraglin was at a loss for how to describe what he was seeing, “Ahhhhh…”

“Oh hell!!” Yondu’s voice was cut off abruptly.

Fiona and Kraglin shared a look and he moved to stand at the main control station on the far right. It felt like forever and a day before they heard Yondu’s voice again and Kraglin heard Fiona let out a breath he guessed she’d been holding.

“Kraglin. We need the Quadrant for an extraction. T minus five minutes.”

“Aye Cap’n,” Kraglin responded and released the lock on the Quadrant’s orbit and fired the thrusters to steer them toward the planet’s surface.

He landed the Quadrant on the shaking ground and Fiona deactivated the force field so everyone could get on board. Suddenly blue tentacles came up out of the ground to wrap around the ship and started to pull them over. Fiona grabbed onto one of the steering controls at the station she’d been standing at but Kraglin lost his footing.

“Kraglin!!!” Fiona screamed.

Somehow he managed to grab onto part of the control station and reached up to activate their thrusters to right the ship. When they were stable he saw Fiona walk as close to the forcefield as she could and stare out at the destruction happening in front of them. He turned to look behind him when he heard heavy footsteps and held back his disappointment when Drax came into view. He searched the ground in front of them, hoping to see Yondu and Peter but they didn’t come into view. Rocket suddenly yelled for him to take off and he swallowed back his fear and did what Yondu asked of him before leaving the Quadrant with Rocket. He left them behind.


	27. Family Reunion...Yaaaay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone comes together aboard the Quadrant.

Fiona lost track of how long she stood in front of the observation window, which Kraglin had reactivated when they took off. She knew that several other people had joined them in control at some point and there was a lot of pacing. Her heart raced and she started to feel like she coulndn’t breath when suddenly Yondu and Peter came into view. It didn’t look like Yondu was wearing a space suit and she started to panic.

"Kraglin! Get us as close as you can!" She yelled at the man who was also looking out at them panic stricken his hand hovering above the thruster control.

"I got it," Rocket said and took over control from Kraglin to move the ship as quickly as he could toward Peter and Yondu with Ego exploding in front of them.

Fiona rushed down to the tractor beam port and pressed the button as soon as they were close enough. She could see Peter saying something to Yondu and trying to pull at something on his own chest. When the two of them tumbled into the airlock and the outer port closed she opened the inner door and started pushing Yondu onto the hover stretcher she had somehow remembered to grab.

Peter looked up at her in surprise as his space suit deactivated. "Fiona!"

"Who were you expecting Peter? DeForest Kelley?" She snapped a little more harshly than she meant to.

"Why would a forest be named Kelley?" Drax asked unhelpfully, she hadn't even realized the rest of them were standing behind her.

Her hands were moving so fast trying to undo all of the straps and buckles on Yondu's leathers while the stretcher lifted him up and she started pushing it to the med bay. Looking over to Peter she could see tears running down his face as he ran alongside it. "Sweetie I need your help," she told him as calmly as she could. He must have thought she was asking him to help remove Yondu's clothes and started fumbling with the fastenings on the other side.

"I'll help you," Gamora said from behind her.

"There's a large metal pod inside med bay, looks like an escape pod. I need it open and powered up so we can move him into it," Fiona explained quickly.

Gamora sprinted ahead of them with her Nebula running next to her.

"Is...is he gonna be okay?" Peter asked through his tears as they stripped Yondu down to those ridiculous white briefs he wore.

Fiona held the young man's eyes for a minute but couldn't say anything as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "I'm going to do everything I can sweetie," she finally told him when she knew her voice would be calm.

"Fi...Bon...Mom!" Peter was so upset he couldn't seem to get out what he wanted to say and his eyes were anguished as he choked out, "I'm so sorry."

Fiona's heart clenched when he called her Mom, Fi had always been his version of Mom in the past, "Nothing to be sorry for Peter, let's get him to med bay. We can talk later okay?"

He nodded and looked down at Yondu who was so still she was afraid they were already too late.

After what felt like forever they pushed the stretcher through the med bay door to find Gamora and Nebula with the pod Fiona needed powered up and open. Gamora was laying all of the pads and wires over the sides so they could slide Yondu in and connect everything smoothly. She and Nebula helped Fiona and Peter slide Yondu from the stretcher into the pod and Peter pulled the stretcher away. Fiona started trying to attach everything to Yondu with hands that were shaking so badly she was failing miserably. A green hand reached over hers and she felt herself being pushed to the side.

"I'll do it, I know how this pod works," Gamora told her softly. There was more compassion in Gamora's voice than she thought possible but she moved down to the foot of the pod and watched as Gamora attached everything. All of the monitors on the pod lit up as the door to it closed and locked and she looked at the heart monitor screen watching for some sign of life. When it seemed like nothing was going to happen she started tapping her palm on the glass. The longer he went without a heartbeat the harder her palm hit the glass until she was banging her fists on it and yelling at the man inside.

"Damn it all to hell Yondu! Fight, damn you, fight," she yelled at him in agony tears streaming down her face. She felt someone's arms, it felt like it might have been Peter, come around her middle to pull her away from the pod as she screamed at it. "I love you damn it, I can't lose you like this Yondu. Not like this. Please. I love you too much for this to be over now. It’s too soon, we haven’t had enough time."

And suddenly there was a blip on the heart monitor. Then a few seconds later another.

She pushed back on whoever was holding her and went to look down at Yondu again as the blips continued, slowly but steadily. "That's it Captain. You fight. Come back to me. We'll make all of this right together," she whispered.

The room was quiet around her, she had no idea who was in the med bay with her as she stared at the love of her life and willed him to live. Willed him to get better.

"That's the first time in twenty-six years that I've ever heard you admit you love the old doofus," she heard Peter's voice to the side of her.

"Of course I love him Peter," she choked out in a whisper, still staring down at Yondu. Then she looked up at the young man she helped Yondu raise as their own. Peter looked ashamed, anguished, and unsure all at once.

"I thought...I guess I was never sure. When I found out how you met I thought maybe you stayed because you felt like you had no other choice," he said and moved to stand next to her.

"No, he gave me the option and the means to leave if I wanted to. I stayed because he's the love of my life," she told him with a smile.

Peter took a deep breath then and tentatively put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm so sorry Bo...Mom. I'm sorry for what I said to you." She started to interrupt him to tell him now wasn’t the time, but he gave her a stricken look and she let him continue. "I know you weren’t…” He hesitated and looked around at everyone standing around them and seemed to rethink his words, “I know you never tried to replace my real mom, but you were always there when I needed you doing everything she would have done. I don't know what I was thinking or why I pushed you both away the way I did."

"It was Ego," came Mantis' quiet deliberate voice.

"What?" Peter asked turning toward her.

Her large luminous eyes dropped to the floor and she sounded upset as she spoke, "He had found you and needed you to think they were the ones who tried to hurt you so that when he finally came to retrieve you he could manipulate you to his purpose."

"But how?" Peter asked her.

"She used her abilities to manipulate you Peter," came Gamora's cold voice.

"It is true," Mantis said, her eyes lifting to Peter's and glancing quickly to Fiona who was beginning to understand. "I am a child of Ego too." She looked guiltily back to Drax, "He was able to use me to manipulate you from far away. In the same way he planned to use you to power his expansion."

"Why would you..." Peter started to ask but Fiona interrupted him.

"Because if she had refused he would have killed her too and she wouldn't have been able to do anything to prevent him from destroying the rest of the universe," Fiona said as she held the woman's eyes.

"Yes," Mantis replied, she was wringing her hands in front of her and looked distraught.

Peter looked between Fiona and Mantis, then over to Kraglin, before he picked Mantis up in a bear hug. "I have a sister!"

Kraglin smiled and put his hand on Peter's shoulder, and the younger man put one of his arms around Kraglin's shoulders and pulled him in with them. "And a brother!"

"What a bunch of idiots," Rocket grumbled. "I'm going back to fly the ship."

Fiona stepped out in the hall and called after the retreating raccoon who paused, "Thank you Rocket."

"You know Bones, you ain't so bad for a humie," he told her, making her eyes well up with tears again, and then moved back to control to take them safely out of Ego's galaxy.

When she stepped back into the med bay she saw Kraglin and Peter were forehead to forehead, hands on each other’s shoulders, and they were talking quietly. Little Groot was sitting on top of the pod looking down at Yondu. Drax, looking like only he could, was standing to the side with Mantis, who was staring at Yondu. Gamora stood over the pod looking at the monitors and making adjustments where needed. Nebula was standing in the corner with her arms crossed looking deadly.

"How is his heart rate?" Fiona asked.

"Steady but still slow, he's in stasis," Gamora replied as she made one final adjustment then turned to look at Fiona with narrowed eyes and hands on hips. "How did you know to have this pod on board?"

Fiona shook her head and smiled as she touched the top of Groot's head and he looked up to her with a childlike smile. "Yondu and I had made a trip to Knowhere to pick up some medical supplies. I have to get some of the medicines I use from non-regulated worlds because I’m not actually a doctor.” She saw Nebula raise an eyebrow at that. “I was wandering the suppliers shop and this thing reminded me of something I’d seen in an old movie. I touched it and had a vision of Peter floating in deep vac without his mask on holding someone significantly smaller than he was.” She looked pointedly at Peter and Gamora who exchanged a look. “When I touched it again I had another vision. In the second one Peter was flying away from a crumbling planet, without his mask again, but someone else, with blue hands, was holding on to him.”

Little Groot yawned and reached his little arms out to Gamora who picked his up and cuddled him to her chest making Fiona smile.

"The shop keeper wanted two hundred thousand units for it, but Yondu negotiated him down to a hundred thousand. He looked right at me and said 'Damn woman spending all my units on popsicles' and kept saying that to me for days after that."

Peter chuckles, "I remember that. It was like ten, twelve years ago. He was an unbearable asshole for a week." He grinned widely then and looked around the room, “But we had popsicles in the mess.”

"Then a few months ago when you took the power stone off Morag and gave Gamora your mask after her pod blew up?" She held Peter's hazel eyes this time, eyes eerily like hers, "When I finally told him about the visions after the Battle of Xandar and told him they were why I was so desperate to get this pod he said he was glad we had it in case we’d needed it for you. I didn’t think he'd wind up being the one that needed it."

"S'worth every damn unit and more if it saves the Cap'n," Kraglin interjected with a crack in his voice.

Peter looked over at Kraglin then to Yondu before laying a hand over the glass above his face, “Dad.” He looked back up at Kraglin, “It’s gonna save our Dad.”

“I knew he was your father,” Drax said with a laugh.

Peter just rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Dude, we had this conversation.” Pulling up his sleeves he held out his arms to Drax and exaggerated his eyes back and forth between his arms and Drax.

Drax shrugged. “You look blue,” he offered and crossed his arms over his chest.

Peter let out an exasperated breath and dropped his face into his hands.

Fiona looked around the room at everyone who looked exhausted. “Kraglin, Peter, why don’t you two show everyone where the mess and Captain’s Quarters are? There should be plenty of empty rooms in there, I’m not sure what the crew’s quarters look like right now.”

They looked at each other and nodded and everyone filed out of the room leaving Fiona alone with Yondu in the pod. She realized she was exhausted herself and pulled a chair next to it and sat down with her hand stretched out touching the glass.


	28. The Other 99 Ravager Clans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I do not own any of GOTG, any dialogue from the movie belongs to James Gunn and his wonderful writing.**

Fiona woke with a start and the smell of an unwashed body in her nose. Her chair fell back to the floor startling her and making her jump up and look around, her heart in her throat, her eyes wide and panicked. She was still next to the pod that continued to work on healing Yondu. Peter was sitting in a chair by the door rubbing his eyes and leaning forward to look at her.

“You okay?” He asked, concern evident in his tone.

Her heart slowed down as the smell dissipated and her vision focused on the fact that no one else was in the room with them. Fiona nodded quickly and stood her chair back up.

Peter studied her, a little closely for her comfort. One thing his over-the-top personality made it easy to forget at times was just how keen his eye really was. He was too much like Yondu in that respect.

“I’m fine Peter, just forgot where I was,” she reassured him.

He didn’t look convinced but left it alone for the moment, “How is he?” Standing up from his chair he came forward to stand next to her as she looked over the monitors.

It had been two days since Ego had been destroyed. Two days that Yondu had been in cryorepair with slow but steady progress. Most of the damage from his short time in deep vac was repaired, but there was still the chance they could lose him.

“Stable,” she replied and made an adjustment to the oxygen level in the pod based on what she was seeing on the monitor. “It’s his lungs we have to worry about now. If the pod can heal them sufficiently then he should make it.”

Gamora walked in then holding a fruit that resembled an apple from Terra which she was slicing with her sword of all things.

Peter just rolled his eyes and snickered a little bit.

"Uhm Fiona, Peter, come to control," Kraglin's voice suddenly sounded over the coms in med bay.

"Go on you two, I will stay and monitor him," Gamora told them.

They rushed out of med bay and to control where Kraglin stood in front of the observation window pointing out at several ships that were dropping out of the jump point. While they stood there watching, more and more ships appeared.

Fiona was confused, "What the hell? It's not the Sovereign this time."

Peter and Kraglin shared a look, and Kraglin spoke up, "It's the other 99 Ravager clans."

"What are they doing here?" Fiona was angry, if they had come to punish Yondu for taking out his mutinous crew and blowing up the _Eclector_ they had better think twice.

Rocket moved toward the window and watched, "I sent word to Yondu's old Ravager buddies and told them what he did." He looked back and forth as ships continued dropping out of the jump point, "He didn't chase them away."

Peter looked at the myriad of ships he hadn't seen since he was seven, "No."

"Even though he yelled at them, he was always mean, and he stole batteries he didn't need," Rocket said and pressed his paws to the window.

"Well of course not," Peter looked down at Rocket.

One of the ships broke away from the rest and moved toward the Quadrant. Fiona narrowed her eyes and moved toward the connecting port before Peter or Kraglin could stop her. She stood there waiting for the hail from the other ship.

"This is Ravager Leader Stakar Ogord, who is your acting Captain at this time?"

Fiona looked back to Kraglin and Peter, it would be one of the two of them, and they both knew Captain Ogord. Kraglin shook his head and motioned to Peter who shrugged at Fiona and she motioned him to the com.

He let out a breath and hung his head before stepping forward and pressing the com button, "I am. This is..." Peter hesitated for a second before a big goofy grin took over his face, "Starlord."

Fiona snorted and rolled her eyes at the 34-year-old man child.

They were met with a few seconds of silence before a low chuckle came back over the com, "Alright Captain Starlord then. I'm coming aboard with two of my officers son."

"Yeah, figured that," Peter replied and punched the port button with the side of his fist.

They waited while they heard the connector extend to the other ship and lock into place. When the door slid open they were faced with three Ravagers. A very broad dark-haired man a little taller than Yondu stood at the front in dark blue Ravager leathers with a red and white triangular wing set over each shoulder. There was a dark-haired female in green leathers next to him a step forward on his left and a man made of what appeared to be glass also wearing dark blue leathers behind him to his right. Fiona moved to stand in front of them blocking their way on board.

"Mom..." Peter started and Fiona shot him a look.

"And you are?" The man she recognized as Stakar Ogord by the voice said.

"Fiona Holloran. And if you so much as look at Yondu funny I will slice you open and eat your heart in front of your officers while it’s still beating," she stated with deadly sincerity.

Behind her she heard Drax laugh, "She is puny, she couldn’t even pierce his skin."

"Shut up Drax. Trust me, she's serious," Peter snapped, and surprisingly Drax shut up.

Stakar smiled widely then, "Girl, we're not here to hurt anyone. We're here to make something right with Yondu."

She put her fists on her hips and stayed put, "He's not awake yet."

The man in front of her grinned and looked over Fiona's head to Peter, "This your momma?"

"Yeah, she's a little testy right now," he said and looped an arm around Fiona's waist to pick her up and move her out of the way. "Come on board. But trust me, she was serious. Maybe not about the heart eating thing, but definitely about the slicing open if you plan on hurting anyone here. And I'm pretty sure you'll have to go through all of us to get to Yondu. The green woman in med bay with him is mean."

"I heard that Peter!" Gamora yelled.

"Does she have Vulcan hearing or something? How does she hear everything?" Peter groused as everyone moved back to let the three newcomers on board and he set Fiona back on her feet.

"I am Aleta Ogord. Yondu Udonta is our boy," the dark-haired woman deadpanned with a glance to the Ravager Leader. "If Stakar thinks to lay a hand on him he will deal with me."

"Fine." Fiona said moving out of the way.

"How is he?" Stakar asked with obvious concern.

Peter looked to Fiona who took a deep breath and faced the man, "We got him into cryorepair quickly enough that external damage was minimal. It's working on his lungs now and he hasn't woken up yet."

Stakar raised an eyebrow, "Cryorepair? That's an odd piece of equipment for a Ravager ship."

"Well Captain Ogord this isn't..." Fiona started but it was Kraglin who pulled her back that time.

"Uh, Fiona felt the pod would be good to have on board since we had a young Ravager always flyin' around without a suit," Kraglin said with a hand gripped on Fiona's shoulder.

"Dude, it was two times. Well…three. But I was not always flying around without a suit," Peter complained. "I had my mask..." He paused and tilted his head back with a groan, "Rocket, I'm gonna need your help fixing that by the way."

"See what I mean? Rocket do this. Rocket do that," Rocket said in a mocking tone and wandered back off toward the control station he’d claimed.

Aleta stepped forward and addressed Fiona, "Could I see Yondu?"

Fiona looked to Peter then Kraglin who both shrugged, then back to Aleta before motioning her forward and started to med bay where she found Gamora examining the holoscreen above the pod. "Any changes?"

"He remains stable. And I am not mean." Gamora actually sounded a little sullen.

Fiona smiled and chuckled as she and Gamora watched Aleta stand over the pod looking down on Yondu, "Peter's idea of mean might be a little skewed."

That made Gamora grin, "Perhaps. He says Yondu likes to yell a lot."

"I am sure he got that from Stakar. Yondu was still a very young man by his species standards when we freed him and he was with us ten years before Stakar gave him his own clan," Aleta spoke without looking at the other two women in the room with her. She spoke quite deliberately but with obvious emotion behind her words. "I begged Stakar to listen to Yondu and not to exile him." She turned to look at Fiona and Gamora then, "His exile has torn us apart. The clans no longer work together. I took two of Stakar's crew and went on our own so there would not be a chance for him to establish another clan. That is why we are here."

Fiona narrows her eyes, "What do you mean?"

"Aleta, that needs to wait until Yondu wakes up," Stakar's voice sounded behind them making Fiona and Gamora turn.

Fiona moved protectively to the side of Yondu's pod but Stakar held a gloved hand up, "Girl, I told you we're not here to hurt anyone, especially not Yondu."

She studied him for a second then noticed Peter and Kraglin standing in the doorway with glass man. Peter nodded to her and she stepped away so Stakar could look down at Yondu. He lifted a hand and laid it over the glass of the pod tapping his fingers a few times over it. The wings over his shoulders flashed red then white from front to back. "He will wake up. And when he does we will be here to greet him and make things right." Turning away from Yondu's pod he faced Peter then, "Keep me informed of his status?"

Peter was leaning casually on the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and nodded his head, "Alright."

Stakar motioned to Aleta and the glass man and they made their way out of the med bay leaving Fiona to breath a sigh of relief. Gamora returned to examining Yondu's monitors and Fiona just stood there staring at him with her hand splayed over the viewing port. Peter moved forward then to stand between them with his arms still crossed over his chest.

"They want to remove his exile and bring him back into the Ravager clans," he said quietly to them both.

Fiona looked up at Peter whose gaze was fixed on the man who had truly been the only father he'd ever known. "I think Yondu's ready to accept family again."

His hazel eyes flicked to hers and he smiled, "Yeah, me too."

Gamora put an arm around Peter then and he leaned into her and returned the gesture. Fiona watched their open affection toward each other and hoped beyond all hope she had in her heart that she would share that with Yondu. "Go on you two, get some sleep."

"You need to sleep too, I can ask Kraglin to sit in here with him," Peter offered.

Fiona shook her head, "I've spent the last twenty-six years sharing his bed." She shrugged and looked over at the couple who both wore concerned expressions, "I can barely sleep in a chair or on the stretcher over there. I'm not going to be able to sleep in another room without him. I doubt I'll sleep much at all until he wakes up."

"I could give you a sedative," Gamora offered.

Fiona snorted, "If only one would work. My nanos block anything that affects my physiology."

Peter looked surprised, "That's new. You should talk to Rocket about your nanos. He can probably figure out what's been going on with them."

She waved her hand dismissively in the air, "Eventually."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that will have any dialogue from the actual movies. I really liked the scene between Peter and Rocket during the Ravager funeral for Yondu so I modified it to fit my purpose. FYI though, this chapter and the one prior had mostly already been written, the next is only outlined so next update might not be until tomorrow.
> 
> While this part of the story is nearing an end as I've said before I will be continuing the Guardians story in a separate companion fic. I'll also have some more detailed backstory on things alluded to in the main story as well as flashbacks in one shots as part of the series. 
> 
> Send me prompts! I'm working them in, I promise. There's one that hasn't shown up yet, but rest assured it is coming.


	29. Fiona the Drax Destroyer

It had been a week since Yondu had first gone into the cryorepair pod. All of the Ravager ships but Stakar, Aleta’s, and three others had already left. Stakar had told Peter that first day they came on board that the 99 clans had met a jump away and unanimously voted to reinstate Yondu within the clans making them 100 clans once more. They had all then made the jump to the Quadrant, which had moved a few jumps away from Ego’s galaxy already, to give a show of their support of that decision. Because Yondu was not awake yet and they were unsure when he would wake up they had all agreed Stakar should speak for them once Yondu was awake and went back to whatever job they had been working on. The ships that remained behind were Yondu’s original team, the ones Fiona remembered him saying he had considered family. Stakar and Aleta, Martinex, Charlie-27, Krugarr, and Mainframe.

Every one of them came aboard the Quadrant at some point to check on Yondu and sit in med bay with Fiona who had not left since he’d gone into the cryorepair pod. Fortunately, there was a fully equipped bathroom as part of med bay so Fiona was able to shower and at least change her clothes on a daily basis. If it weren’t for the fact that at least twice a day someone was shoving a bowl or plate into Fiona’s hands she’d probably subsist on the protein bars and water she had always kept stocked in med bays supply as well. She was just unreasonably afraid that something would happen and she wouldn’t be there if Yondu slipped away from them.

Of the Ravager Captains who remained Stakar and Aleta spent the most time on board the Quadrant, which made sense. Despite the years of estrangement through Yondu’s exile they still considered him their boy. Aleta spent the most time in med bay whereas Stakar seemed to have difficulty staying in there for long. It was like the older man couldn’t stand seeing Yondu in such a vulnerable state so he spent most of his time on board in control with Kraglin and Peter. Fiona was aware they were discussing plans for the Udonta Clan as well as for the Guardians.

“You know Peter I do believe I said leave it alone for now?” Fiona was saying from the hover stretcher she was laying back on as Gamora drew blood from her arm and Rocket stood at her feet scanning her with a device he’d gotten from Mainframe.

“No, actually all you said was eventually,” Peter threw back from his position leaning casually in the med bay doorway.

“Quill, you have warned us against raising the ire of your mother. Why do you risk certain death by doing so yourself?” Drax asked from behind him making Peter jump.

“Damn shadow!” Peter grouched at the man who walked through the door with Groot in his hand and dropped the little tree on top of Yondu’s pod. “She won’t kill me!”

Fiona closed her eyes and tried to drown out the two of them.

“She is puny. She could not do any damage to me,” Drax stated resolutely.

“Drax?” Fiona opened one eye and looked over toward the man in question.

“Yes, Quill’s mother?”

Rocket snickered from where he stood and Gamora raised an eyebrow but continued to draw Fiona’s blood.

Taking a deep breath she let it out slowly and audibly, “Look, I have told you, multiple times at that, my name is not Quill’s mother. It’s Fiona.”

“Yes, you have said so.”

“How do you manage not to murder him in his sleep?” Fiona said quietly to Gamora who grinned.

“It’s not easy.” Gamora finished with the blood draw and disconnected everything.

Fiona looked over to Drax once again, “They call you Drax the Destroyer right?”

The man stood up straight and proudly, “Yes, I have earned that title by destroying my enemies in single handed combat.”

“Uh huh, okay. Well, fair warning, I’m going to earn the title of Fiona the Drax Destroyer if you don’t zip it,” she told him seriously.

“I’d listen to her Dude, she’s serious,” Peter shook his head at the stubborn man who would probably not get it. “Rocket can you tell anything with the nanoscanner Mainframe gave you?”

“Yeah, more than your scanners,” Rocket replied and typed something into the scanner he held then pulled down the holoscreen over top of Fiona.

Peter moved closer to them then as Rocket started pointing to the different colored nanobots.

“The blue ones are programmed to heal her major systems, eradicate disease, and keep from making any little blue babies.”

“Rocket!” Peter exclaimed, “Dude come on! I don’t want to hear that.”

“Yondu and Fiona did not conceive you Quill, this is not the same as your birth mother and father. Why would you not want to know they were trying to make a sibling for you?” Drax asked.

“Drax!!” Gamora snapped.

“Where’s Mantis when we need her?” Fiona asked and rolled her eyes.

“In control with Kraglin,” Peter told her out of the side of his mouth.

“Geez, you people have some major issues,” Rocket huffed with a shake of his furry head then continued pointing at the screen above them. “The red ones in her brain are programmed to stimulate visions and telekinesis. The yellow ones are programmed to protect you, so my guess would be those energy shields you’ve experienced would be them.”

Fiona pushed up on her elbows and looked at Rocket, “Are they altering me?”

“Altering?” Rocket studied her for a minute. “If you’re asking if you’re gonna turn into Mainframe all of a sudden, then no. If you’re asking if they’re giving you abilities normal humies don’t possess, then yes.”

“So I’m not going to turn into some unfeeling cyborg that doesn’t remember anything about her life?”

Rocket stood there staring at her open mouthed before pressing his paw into his eyes, “No Bones, what even made you think that?”

“Data…” Peter and Fiona said at the same time with a laugh.

“I’m not even gonna ask,” Rocket quipped and hopped down off the stretcher to the floor and left the room carrying the scanner with him while mumbling to himself.

“Where exactly did he pick up Bones from anyway Peter?” Fiona pursed her lips and looked over to him.

“We didn’t know what your name actually was for the longest time, all he called you was Bones.” Gamora said from where she was dividing Fiona’s blood up and setting it into an analyzer.

“Are you ill?” Aleta’s gruff voice sounded from the door.

“No, just turning into a cyborg,” Fiona sassed.

Aleta raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest as she looked from Fiona to Peter to Gamora and back again, “Oh. Well fine then, you can join Mainframe’s crew.” The dark-haired woman moved over to Yondu’s pod and looked at the monitors, “How is our Yondu healing?”

“The pod is working on his lungs, infusing them with oxygen to restore their proper function.” Gamora walked over to Aleta and showed her Yondu’s latest scans from the monitors.

Groot reached out to Aleta then and Fiona saw the yellow wings over her shoulders flash when she reached out her hand for Groot to stand on. That seemed to be a common theme between Stakar, Aleta, and Yondu.

When Fiona went to swing her legs off the stretcher she sat on Peter moved over toward her and reached out a hand to help her down. They moved over to the side of Yondu’s pod and Peter grinned over at Aleta. “I feel like I should call you Grandmother or something like that.”

Fiona and Gamora shared an amused look and watched Aleta turn to Peter and look up at him.

“If you wish to call me Grandmother then I will allow that,” Aleta replied calmly.

Peter cringed a little, “Okay. Alright then.”

“I am Groot.” The little tree said from Aleta’s hand making the woman smile.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you smile this much Aleta,” they heard Stakar from the doorway.

“Because you were stupid and exiled our boy,” she snapped.

There was obviously still some tension between the two over that issue. Fiona hadn’t gotten the entire story since she’d confined herself to med bay but as she understood it Aleta had been in favor of allowing Yondu to plead his case to the other 99 clans. Stakar had chosen unilaterally to exile Yondu for violating the code and hadn’t heard Yondu out when he tried to tell the man what happened. It sounded like Yondu might not have been exiled if Aleta had her way. Ravagers didn’t traffic kids or women, but Yondu had genuinely believed he was reuniting children with their father which was different. Once he knew Ego wasn’t fathering his children he kept the last child he retrieved which was Peter and kept him safe. The clans were unanimously in favor of bringing Yondu back into their fold not only because he hadn’t truly violated the code in the first place but also because he’d been willing to sacrifice himself to save Peter.

Stakar stepped forward then and placed a hand on Aleta’s shoulder. The wing on that side flashed yellow again. “I know girl, and I’m sorry.”

Fiona saw Aleta’s hand reach up to clasp Stakar’s.

 

Fiona had fallen asleep in a chair she'd moved in front of the cryorepair pod and her head had been leaning on it. She woke as she felt a shift in the pod and blinked her eyes several times to clear the fog in front of them as she realized the lid had lifted signaling the pod had done everything it could for Yondu. Closing her eyes she listened carefully. The monitors had all shut themselves off, she could hear Yondu breathing, and the room was quiet. When she opened her eyes again ruby eyes were staring back at her and there was a smile on Yondu's face.

"I had this dream that the woman I love more than anythin' in all the galaxies told me she loves me," he rasped.

All she could do was nod as tears rolled down her face and she stood up to bury her nose into his neck, "I love you Yondu Udonta. I always have."

A strong hand reached up to her cheek and thumbed her tears away as she cried. “I love you too Fiona.” She cried harder into his neck and pressed herself into him as much as she feasibly could, “Darlin’ I ain’t gonna leave ya, we got too much left to do.”

She lifted her head and he kissed her then, long and hard, until he started to cough and Fiona quickly grabbed an oxygen mask to put over his nose and mouth.

He breathed in the oxygen for a few seconds before looking down the length of his body and pulled the mask away slightly, “Darlin’ can you do me a favor?”

“Anything Yondu, absolutely anything.”

“Get me some pants b’fore anyone else comes in here,” his tone was so insulted but so serious at the same time she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yes Captain.”

“Yer bein’ a smart ass again,” he grinned and lifted a finger then settled the mask back into place.

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't get the impression from GOTG2 or IW that Drax and Mantis were in any way meant to be romantically involved. Seems to me like Drax won't ever get over the loss of Hovat and Kamaria. So I'm playing with the idea of a possible Kraglin/Mantis pairing at some point in the future. What do my readers think or want to see? Like that idea, don't like it, indifferent? Once again, FYI, I am NOT writing IW into my fic. I've got plans for the GOTG and the Ravagers that does not include Thanos' snap. So this is where I'm OOC and AU. Thanos and his downfall will come, but not via IW.


	30. Reunited

Yondu took the scrub pants Fiona handed him and stared at them a minute before sighing and pulling them on. He watched her pull a hover stretcher next to the pod he was sitting in and activated it then waved him up on it. She couldn’t stop crying every time she looked at him and by the time she had pushed the pod out of med bay she was sobbing.

“Fiona,” he rasped with a hand held out toward her, when she put her hand in his he pulled her into him and held her tightly again while she sobbed into his shoulder.

“I have to call Peter and Kraglin,” she whispered on a sniff and stood up.

“Go on,” he told her and started to cough which just made her sob harder as she fumbled with the oxygen mask and handed it to him again. He shook his head with a chuckle and held the mask up to his face until the coughing subsided.

Fiona activated her wrist com and held It up to her face. “Kraglin? Peter? Come to the med bay please.” She choked out on a sob.

Yondu rolled his eyes when he heard heavy footsteps running down the hall from control and Peter and Kraglin burst in the door of med bay at the same time. Both of them looked absolutely stunned when they saw Yondu sitting up on the hover stretcher pausing only for a second before rushing him. One on each side and each of them threw an arm around him.

“Dad!!”

“Cap’n?!”

He roughly patted each of their arms as the two men cried on his shoulders.

“Come on, both of ya,” he said, his voice catching, and he could feel tears forming in his eyes as well at the sound of his grown boys sobbing. “Boys, I’m gonna be fine.”

Both of them stood up then. Peter was red-eyed and tears were still rolling down his face. Kraglin looked haggard, but he was slightly more composed.

“Dad…” Peter started to say but choked himself up on a sob.

“Quill…” Yondu paused and shook his head, that wasn’t right, he lifted his hand to the back of Peter’s neck and gave him a very slight shake. “Peter. I love ya son.” He looked over at Kraglin who was giving him a watery eyed expression as well, and he reached out and grasped the back of Kraglin’s neck. “You too Kraglin. I love ya too son.”

Kraglin started to say something but squeaked and kept quiet instead.

Yondu started to cough again and let go of his boys to lift the oxygen mask to his face again. His boys. It felt strange, but not, somehow to know that he could actually tell them how he felt without worrying about someone in his crew hurting them to get to him. His eyes lifted and he found Fiona standing in the corner, hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face watching the three of them. Peter turned slightly to see what Yondu was looking at and when he caught sight of Fiona he went to grab her and pull her over and all four of them embraced. The sounds of sobbing filled the air of med bay as they held tightly onto each other.

 

The Guardians left the little family to themselves for thirty minutes before they finally started coming into med bay. One at a time at first but it didn’t take long for all of them to crowd into med bay around the stretcher Yondu sat on. Little Groot sobbed uncontrollably when he saw Yondu was awake and sitting up. Yondu greeted him with a pat on the head making the little tree smile and cry more. Gamora smiled widely when she saw him and embraced Yondu with a kiss to his cheek telling him she was glad he’d returned to them. She stepped back then and put her arms around Peter. Drax remained quiet and stoic but was smiling. Mantis hovered in the doorway looking uncomfortable, her hands folded in front of her, and a wide smile on her face. Rocket walked in, hopped up on the end of the stretcher, and kicked Yondu’s foot.

“Good to see you alive ya blue idiot.”

“Hey there Rat,” Yondu chuckled then looked at the rest of them. “A’right now, y’all go on back to what ya were doin’. I don’t need eight nursemaids in here.”

Rocket jumped down off the stretcher and headed out of med bay, “Someone’s gotta keep an eye on this ship so it don’t blow up too. Guess that’s me.”

Drax picked up Groot from where he stood on Yondu’s stomach and walked out followed closely by Mantis. Yondu noted Kraglin follow Mantis with his eyes and grinned over at Fiona who dropped her eyes but he saw there was a sly smile on her face as well. He lifted a hand to thread his fingers with hers and her eyes found his. His heart missed a beat when he looked at the love that was so open and evident there and he knew then he never wanted to go back to the way things were.

Peter finally let go of Gamora and scrubbed his hands over his face. Yondu snickered a little at his boy when he was done since he left his hair sticking up in every direction possible and he looked a little crazy. “Dad, ah, there’s something you need to know.”

He saw Fiona cringe a little bit and narrowed his eyes over at Peter, “Wha’s that?”

Kraglin and Peter shared a look and Kraglin took a deep breath and spoke instead then. “Stakar’s here. On the _Starhawk._ With Aleta. The 99 clans were all here but the rest ‘cept Mainframe, Krugarr, and Charlie-27 left since they didn’t know when you’d wake up. Promised Stakar we’d let them know once you woke up.”

Yondu’s heart started to thump uncontrollably then. Had Stakar come to punish him for executing his crew and blowing up the _Eclector_? If so he was screwed.

Peter must have seen the look on his face because his eyes went wide and he rushed to speak, “It’s not what you think. They want to lift your exile.”

“Wha?” Yondu looked at each of them who all nodded. “Y’all serious?”

“Fully serious,” Kraglin told him.

“Yondu!”

He hadn’t heard that voice in twenty-six years and when he looked to the doorway Aleta Ogord was standing there, the wings over her shoulders flashing yellow, with Stakar standing just a little behind and to her right.

Fiona leaned forward and gave him a kiss then moved her lips to his ear, “I’ll take them to control so you have some time.”

Yondu nodded and watched as Fiona shuffled Peter, Kraglin, and Gamora out of med bay then paused in front of Stakar.

She pointed a finger into his chest and Yondu saw the man grin down at her looking like he was suppressing a laugh. “Hurt him and I swear your crew will watch me eating your still beating heart.”

“Mom!” He heard both Peter and Kraglin yelp in the hallway and Fiona disappeared leaving him alone with his once family.

He wasn’t really sure what to do with his hands so he folded them in his lap and wished he’d had a chance to put his leathers back on before Stakar and Aleta saw him.

Aleta had never been much for shows of affection but she strode forward quickly then and gripped him in a tight embrace. She was strong for a small woman. Like Fiona. “You scared me. I expect you not to do it again.”

“Yes ma’am,” he patted her on the back and felt her arms tighten even more so he returned the embrace.

Yondu started to cough again and Aleta let him go so he could lift the oxygen mask to his face. Stakar stood there until Yondu had his breathing back to normal and grasped his hand then pulled him forward into Stakar’s chest and patted him on the back.

“You scared us all son,” Stakar told him then, his voice more gravelly than normal.

All he could do was swallow hard and nod.

Stakar let him go and was quiet then, worked his jaw back and forth and looked like he didn’t know where to start.

Aleta solved the problem by punching Stakar in the arm and pointing at Yondu.

Nodding his head Stakar tapped the side of his fist on the stretcher next to Yondu then met his eyes, “I’m sorry son. Sorry I didn’t listen to you when you tried to tell me what was going on. More sorry than you’ll know that I exiled you without giving you the chance to speak up. And sorrier still that it took almost losing you for me to make this right.”

Aleta folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at Stakar.

“I’m getting there Aleta,” he chuckled at his wife. “Yondu, the clans have unanimously voted to lift your exile and bring you back into the ranks as one of the one hundred clans.”

Yondu swallowed hard then and closed his eyes. This had been all he wanted for the last twenty-six years. He wouldn’t have to hide how he felt about the ones he loved and he could protect his family the way he was supposed to. There was still the fear that he’d screw up again and lose them all. Or that they’d all abandon him. As hard as it was to admit he recognized that Fiona had been right and things had to be different now. He couldn’t let the fear get to him and he couldn’t use it as an excuse to treat Fiona, Peter, or Kraglin like they didn’t much matter.

Opening his eyes he looked at Stakar and Aleta then. They both looked like they were waiting for him to say something. To acknowledge that was what he wanted. Folding his bottom lip into his teeth he stared down at his hands and bobbed his head absently. When he finally lifted his eyes to meet Stakar’s he spoke quietly, “That’s all I wanted for the last twenty-six years Stakar. I missed y’all and the team mor’n anything.”

Stakar nodded tightly, “I know son. The team has missed you too.”

Aleta’s eyes flashed and she pursed her lips up at Stakar, “WE have missed you Yondu.”

Yondu started coughing again and put the oxygen mask over his nose and mouth again.

“Son when you’re feeling up to it we want all of you to come aboard the _Starhawk_ so we can make the official announcement to the clans and celebrate,” Stakar gripped his shoulder and Yondu nodded.

“You also must think on whether you want a new ship and larger crew than is feasible on this one. We have had discussions with your boys and the Guardians and they have some ideas of their own as well. Whatever you decide Stakar and I will help,” Aleta told him.

All Yondu could do was continue to nod since his lungs continued to burn and he wondered how long he’d have to sit in med bay attached to the mask on his face. His eyes focused on his other hand still in his lap.

“We will allow you to rest,” Aleta covered his hand with hers and squeezed. “Think on what we have said.”

He continued to nod when she leaned in to hug him and uncharacteristically dropped a kiss on his forehead. Shifting her hand to cup his chin she nudged it up to bring his eyes up to hers, “I am glad to have my boy back. I…” She hesitated and pressed her lips into a thin line, “I love you my son.”

Before he could respond though Aleta abruptly walked out of the room leaving Stakar behind with him staring after her with a sad expression.

“The last twenty-six years was hardest on her,” Stakar told Yondu with a pointed look.

Yondu nodded because while the situation might have been vastly different he knew things had been hardest on Fiona over the years so he understood what Stakar was trying to express. Stakar left then and he only had a few minutes alone before Fiona, Peter, and Kraglin filed back in.

“Aleta ordered us to talk to you about a new ship and crew before we go over to the _Starhawk_ after you’re feeling better,” Peter looked around at the rest of them. “I kinda felt like she meant now.”

“She probably did,” Yondu chuckled.

Fiona looked irritated, “Yondu, you just woke up after almost dying in deep vac. Do we really have to do this now?”

Yondu grabbed her hand and squeezed it, “Darlin’ it’s fine. Yer not gonna let me out of med bay so at least I can do somethin’ productive.”

“Fine.”

Peter made a ‘pssssshhhh’ sound and Yondu leveled him with a look which made him snap his mouth shut. “Darlin’ even I know fine don’t mean fine when a woman says it.”

She dropped her chin to her chest and looked at him, “I just don’t think this is the time.”

“Can’t hurt nothin’ just to talk,” Yondu reasoned with her.

Her eyes softened and she laid a hand on his chest which he grabbed with his other hand, “Alright Yondu, let’s talk about it.”

Kraglin spoke up then, “We been talkin’ about it. When Stakar was in control while Aleta sat in here with Fiona.”

Peter nodded, “I talked to Gamora too and we have an idea if you’re willing to hear us out.”

Yondu motioned him to continue.

“The Quadrant is big enough for a Ravager ship and it has docking space enough for five M ships. Once we get back to Berhert and get the _Milano_ fixed we’d like to make the Quadrant the Guardians base of operations. And we’d like to help find a new Ravager crew,” Peter looked over at Kraglin then who seemed to take that as his cue to continue.

“We think the crew should be small this time. Like you originally intended. Maybe twenty more aside from us’n the Guardians. The Quadrant’s big enough for a crew bigger’n that, but small enough that’s mor’n enough to run ‘er. All we need is four more M ships once we get Peter’s fixed,” Kraglin finished.

Yondu considered it for a minute, “Did y’all have any discussion ‘bout chain a command?”

Peter nodded, “I’m the Guardians Captain, Rocket’s basically my First Mate. On the Ravager side same as it is now but I’d be your second under Kraglin.”

“I’m guessing the intent is for the Guardians and the Udonta Ravager Clan to work together to some degree?” Fiona asked.

Kraglin and Peter nodded.

Fiona and Yondu looked at each other, and Fiona nodded at him, “It’s a good plan.”

“Okay boys, it’s settled then.” Yondu said and both Kraglin and Peter grinned ear to ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a couple more chapters in this part of the story. :O) 
> 
> Still looking for any input from readers on a Kraglin/Mantis pairing. What do y'all think?


	31. And Yondu Comes Full Circle

Another few days later Fiona declared Yondu fit enough to leave the med bay as long as he carried a small oxygen generator with his oxygen mask since he was still having coughing spells and his lungs were still healing. He wasn’t happy about it, but he wisely chose not to argue with Fiona. When Stakar got word that Fiona had ‘released their prisoner from med bay’ he made plans for them all to come aboard the _Starhawk_ that evening. His prisoner comment earned him frowns from Aleta, Fiona, and Gamora which just made the men in the group laugh.              

They gathered in the _Starhawk’s_ mess hall where their cook had made a veritable feast for them all and Stakar had brought out the best bottles of alcohol he had on the ship. Rocket brought a holopad he’d cloned Peters’ music on and hooked it up to the _Starhawk’s_ com system. The volume played at a dull roar but they’d only just started celebrating.

It had been less than an hour since Yondu, Fiona, Kraglin, Peter, and the rest of the Guardians made their way over to Stakar’s ship. The first thing Stakar had done was to bring them all to one of his command rooms where there were dozens of holoscreens filling the room and every single Ravager Captain was present, in person or on a holoscreen. He announced the unanimous decision of the Clans to remove Yondu’s exiled to hoots and hollars and gave Yondu back his gold Captain’s badge.

To his credit Yondu didn’t do much else but purse his lips and stare at the badge when Stakar put it in place on his duster. Stakar wore a similar expression. Aleta, surprisingly, had been smiling.

It all felt surreal to Yondu as he sat in the middle of the mess hall with a glass of some alcoholic drink that Martinex handed him in his hand.

This had been what he wanted for twenty-six years and now that it had happened he was having a hard time believing it wasn’t a dream. Little more than a week ago he was sacrificing himself so Peter could go on living. His last thoughts then were that he wouldn’t be able to tell Fiona just how much he loved her and wanted more time with her. Then he woke up in that damned pod they’d bought on Knowhere, in his underwears no less, with Fiona asleep by his side. He’d been told that the only time she left the med bay was when the Ravager Clans first gathered and she had threatened Stakar. Aleta still smiled about that whenever it was mentioned.

He was staring into his glass again when he saw Stakar approaching him, a similar glass held in his own hand. Sitting up he met Stakar’s gaze when the older man sat down.

“Stop dwelling on it son. This is real,” he told Yondu with a lopsided grin.

Yondu nodded and thought back to the argument they’d had on Contraxia when Stakar still wouldn’t listen to him. He knew now after a long heartfelt conversation, convincing Fiona to leave the two of them alone had been interesting to say the least, that Stakar genuinely regretted his rash decision to exile Yondu. When they ran into each other on Contraxia Stakar admitted stubborn pride wouldn’t let him listen then either. Then when Rocket reached out to the Ravager Leader and told him what happened and that they were unsure if Yondu would make it he realized pride wasn’t worth loosing his boy forever. Thoughts so similar to his own not all that long ago.

“Yeah, just gonna take some time I guess,” Yondu replied. He was still pondering over the irony of seeing Stakar on Contraxia when Aleta caught his eye where she stood to the side talking to Peter and Gamora. Pulling his bottom lip over his teeth he looked back to Stakar then, “What was ya doin' on Contraxia anyway Stakar?”

"Drinking with my men and keeping an eye on things," Stakar told him with a wry smile and a chuckle. "Did you really think I was with any of the pleasure bots? Aleta would skin me alive. I should ask the same of you."

"Mostly the same. I learned the hard way a lotta years ago that ain't okay," Yondu replied and looked over to where Fiona sat with Rocket talking to Mainframe.

Stakar nodded and glanced to Aleta who actually had a smile on her face. "Yeah son, so did I."

Yondu gave him a surprised look and sat up a little straighter then as he realized he and Stakar really weren't as different as he'd believed for the last twenty-six years. His eyes automatically went to Fiona again as she gestured to herself. Rocket stood on the table in front of her next to Mainframe, with Fiona's left hand in his paws examining it.

"I've tried ta be good ta her, be the kinda man she needed, but with my old crew it was hard 'cause I barely trusted any a'em and she weren't my wife. I didn’t always do the best job at protectin’ her the way I shoulda."

"Well, you're not exiled anymore. We can fix that so it's not an issue in your new crew," Stakar offered. "If that's what you both want that is."

Yondu turned slowly to face Stakar, "You’d do that fer us?”

“Of course, son.”

“If she'll have me after alla this shit."

The man in front of him grinned and raised an eyebrow, "How many times has that woman threatened to open me up and eat my still beating heart if I even looked at you funny? A woman doesn’t say that about a man she doesn’t love."

Yondu just shook his head, he’d heard Fiona say that to Stakar himself a few times now. The scary thing was, Yondu was more than sure she'd been very serious when she’d said it. "I'm sorry fer that."

Stakar reached a hand out and clapped Yondu's shoulder, "Don't be son, it made Aleta smile. For that, it was completely worth it." The older man was quiet a minute then while he watched his own wife still talking to Peter and Gamora before he returned his gaze to Yondu. "Let me share something with you about my Aleta. You know she's as hard as they come, but she has a soft side too. It's rare she shows it but I know you've seen it son. I married her because she's my strength. Not my weakness." Stakar gave Yondu a pointed look then, "I think your Fiona is the same as my Aleta."

Yondu considered what Stakar told him for a minute before speaking again, "She don't like ta be the center of attention, is it somethin' we can do small? Not like I ever seen two Ravagers married b'fore."

"We can do it as big or small as you want son. As a matter of fact we could do it now while everyone else is occupied if that's what you wanted," Stakar leaned forward with his hands clasped between his knees and a small smile on his face as he watched Yondu.

"If we did it now what do we need?"

"Your First Mate needs to state you're the Captain of his ship and true to the Ravager code," Stakar started and held up a hand when Yondu winced. "In all absolute honesty Yondu, you were true to the code. I refused to listen to the whole story."

Yondu nodded tightly and waited until Stakar continued.

"Fiona would need someone to stand beside her to confirm she isn't anyone's property and wasn't forced into the marriage."

"Gimme a minute?" Yondu asked his leader, friend, and father-figure.

Stakar nodded with a knowing smile on his face while Yondu stood and made his way over to his woman where she was still talking to Rocket and Mainframe. Yondu laid a hand on Fiona's shoulder and without even turning to look at him she reached her own hand up and clasped his. "Darlin' can ya come with me a minute?"

She excused herself from the conversation, that sounded to Yondu like it had steered away from her, and stood still holding onto Yondu's hand. When they were away from everyone, in a small storage area, Yondu turned Fiona so that she was facing him. He took both her hands in his and brought them up to rest on his chest with his hands resting over hers.

"Darlin' I need ta ask ya somethin' and I understand if the answer is no."

She furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side.

Yondu took a deep breath and closed his eyes a moment before letting the breath out and opening his eyes once again to look into her clear green eyes. "I wanted ta ask if ya wanna be my wife."

Fiona smiled at him then and turned her hands under his to lace her fingers in his, "Why yes Captain, I would like that very much."

He grinned and pointed a finger at her, "Yer bein' a smart ass again."

"Maybe."

Yondu pulled Fiona completely into him then and kissed her, long and hard, leaning his forehead on hers when they finally separated. "Stakar says it can be as big or small as ya want. He can even do it right now if ya wanted."

Fiona's eyes met his and she chewed her lip, "Could we do it now?"

"Anythin' you want Darlin'."

He explained to her what Stakar said they needed and they agreed that Kraglin and Peter would stand with them. He went to get Kraglin while Fiona went to get Peter. When he walked back into the mess hall where everyone was gathered he caught Stakar's eye and nodded. The Ravager Leader stood, made his way over to Aleta, and whispered something in her ear. She nodded once with her usual stoic look in place and excused herself from Peter and Gamora.

 

**Fiona’s POV**

Once Stakar had left with Aleta and Gamora had excused herself to check on Groot Fiona walked over to Peter.

"Hey Mom, this is..." He started but stopped when he noticed the look on her face. "What?"

She reached her hand out and grasped his and pulled him along behind her to an area outside the mess hall where they couldn't be heard.

"Everything okay?" He asked, concern lacing his tone.

"I...Yondu...We..." She stammered until Peter squeezed her hand, somehow communicating his offer of strength in that one little gesture. Fiona took a deep breath and released it then met Peter's hazel eyes, "Stakar is going to marry Yondu and I. In the control room in front of the observation window." Peter's eyes went wide but before he could say anything, she held up her other hand to him. "Just Yondu and I, Stakar and Aleta. Yondu is getting Kraglin to vouch for him." Peter's face started to fall but Fiona squeezed his hand this time, "As Captain. And I want you to stand beside me."

His face lit up and she could see he was near to bursting with happiness. "Mom..." He said louder than he meant to, looked around quickly to make sure he hadn't drawn anyone's attention out to them, and lowered his voice," I'm blown away. I didn't ever think you two would ever do this."

Smiling she shook head and sucked in a breath to try to keep her tears at bay, “Honestly Peter, I never thought we’d have a chance.”

A thousand emotions seemed to cross Peter’s face at once and suddenly she was engulfed in his arms, her face smothered in the leather of his jacket. He held her so tightly she could barely breath and after a few seconds she tapped him urgently in the back.

“Let go Peter,” she managed.

Just as suddenly as he grabbed her he let her go with a huge smile on his face.

“Come on, we have to go to control,” she told him.

 

Fiona stood to Yondu’s left side in front of Stakar and Aleta in front of the large observation window of the _Starhawk’s_ control room. Peter stood to Fiona’s left, Kraglin to Yondu’s right. Both of their boys were grinning ear to ear and were surprisingly teary eyed. Stakar stood tall over them, hands folded in front of him, and smiled down at the four of them. Aleta stood to his left side as well with one of her rare wide smiles on her face. When Stakar cleared his throat they all looked to him.

“We’re here tonight to unite Ravager Captain Yondu Udonta with his woman, Fiona Halloran.” Stakar paused and looked to Kraglin, “You are Captain Udonta’s First Mate, Kraglin Obfonteri?”

Kraglin nodded and his voice cracked slightly when he spoke, “Yes sir.”

“Can you vouch that Captain Udonta has been a good and fair Captain and remained true to the Ravager Code?” Stakar asked solemnly.

Another nod, “Yes sir.”

Stakar looked to Peter then, “You are Fiona Halloran’s adopted son, Peter Quill?”

Peter smiled wide and bright then and stood tall next to Fiona, “Yes sir.”

“Can you vouch that Fiona Halloran is owned by no one and comes to this marriage of her own free will?”

An even bigger grin, “Yes sir.”

Looking then to the couple in front of him he addressed them directly, “As husband and wife do you both swear to remain loyal to each other? To stand side by side and be each other’s strength? To lead as one voice with a firm but fair hand? To never leave the other behind? To temper yourselves with each other and never deal with one another in anger? To love each other completely and fiercely?”

Both Yondu and Fiona smiled and spared a glance at each other before replying in unison, “Yes sir.”

Taking a step forward Stakar lifted Yondu’s left hand and laid it over top of Fiona’s right hand then covered their hands with his own, “I unite these two as husband and wife, Yondu and Fiona Udonta, leaders of the Udonta Ravager Clan. You are forever bound to each other in this life and in death where your colors will shine brighter than the stars.”

Stakar released their hands then and stepped back as both he and Aleta pounded their closed fists twice over the flames over their hearts. Fiona and Yondu just stared at each other for a minute, in disbelief that the one thing they thought they’d never have, the one thing that would change everything was suddenly a reality.

“Dad!”

Yondu jumped slightly at the volume of Peter’s voice and looked over at their boy.

Peter was motioning with his head toward Fiona and trying to act non-chalant about it.

“What boy?

“Kiss her!!” Peter, Kraglin, Stakar, and Aleta all said at once.

Yondu grinned that shit eating grin of his, looked at his wife who was grinning back, put his hands on either side of her face and pulled her in for their first kiss as husband and wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go before the beginning of my yet untitled Ravagers/Guardians fic. I won't be posting the final chapter of this one until I have the first chapter of the next ready to post so I can note the new fic name in the end notes of the last chapter in this one. Was that too confusing? It made sense in my head. :o)


	32. Back To The Beginning, Only Better

When Yondu asked Peter how badly damaged the _Milano_ was Peter screwed up his face and tried to play it off like it wasn't that bad. Fiona was watching Gamora during the exchange and saw the woman give Peter a murderous look which Fiona took to mean it was bad. Charlie-27 and Krugarr's ships had gone on ahead to Berhert to search the quadrant for any signs of the _Eclector_ crew that had been spaced by Taserface and his loyalists. Mainframe stayed behind with Stakar's ship since she was still working with Rocket on Fiona's nanos. They'd learned that Mainframe did have a robotic body, but because it used so much power she only utilized it when she was planetside.

It had taken them a week to reasonably make the jumps back to Berhert. Neither Yondu nor Fiona wanted to go through what they did when Rocket took them through 700 jumps to Ego in just a few hours. Peter seemed to get more and more on edge the closer they got to Berhert and as Kraglin and Yondu were landing the rechristened _Eclector_ he pulled Fiona aside at the back of control.

"Uhhhhhh..." He looked everywhere but at Fiona.

"Peter, spit it out or I'm going to start to panic and with my nanos being on the fritz I have no idea what that will do," she told him.

That made his eyes go wide and he motioned his hands like he was trying to tell her to calm down which just made her roll her eyes. "The ship might be a little worse than I originally told you."

"I already figured that out Peter, you're the king of understatement when it comes to the damage you do. We'll deal with it when we get there," she told him and patted his arm.

He scratched his ear and looked from her to Yondu, "Okay...but remember, I'm an adult now."

Gamora walked by just as he said that and paused to put her hand on his shoulder briefly, "It's nice that you think that."

Peter made a 'pssshhhh' sound and looked down at the floor, defeat clearly evident in his expression.

When they finally got to Berhert and saw the ruins of the _Milano_ Fiona turned to look at Peter who sidestepped behind Gamora. "Run," she said as calmly as she could. "Run fast, and in the other direction."

He must have realized she was serious because he bolted back in the direction of the _Eclector_ with little hesitation.

It took an entire day and all of the spare hands they had, including Stakar, Aleta, and Charlie-27's crews, to pull the pieces of the _Milano_ up into the _Eclector's_ M ship bay. Peter avoided Fiona during the transfer. Once they got back aboard the _Eclector_ and back into orbit around Berhert the other Ravager Captain's joined them in their control room.

Stakar looked at everyone and cleared his throat, "You know Charlie and Krugarr came ahead of us to see if they could find any of the crew loyal to Yondu that were lost in the mutiny."

Everyone nodded and Fiona leaned back into Yondu who had his left arm around her shoulders.

Looking over to Charlie-27 Stakar motioned for him to continue.

The large man in yellow Ravager leathers stepped forward then and addressed them, "We were able to recover some bodies we were able to identify as _Eclector_ crew by their leathers. There are five on board the _Galileo_ in our crematory room waiting for your decision Captain Udonta."

Yondu squeezed Fiona's shoulder, she wanted to be hopeful, but she knew after so long the likelihood that they could give Tullk a proper funeral was slim. She turned and nodded her head at him, unable to speak for fear her voice would break.

"Kraglin an' I will come aboard the _Galileo_ ta bring back any that're ours," Yondu told Charlie.

It was maybe an hour that they were gone aboard the _Galileo_ and Fiona sat in control with Rocket monitoring the ship. Her heart sat in her throat as she hoped against hope that Tullk would somehow be one of the ones recovered. Rocket was playing Glen's Campbell's _Southern Nights_ over the ship's com giving Fiona the impression he really liked that song for as much as she heard it since he’d been on board. When she heard Yondu return she just stayed where she was, looking at the holoscreen in front of her and monitoring the ships functions while Rocket maintained their orbit.

"You look like you could use a drink." Rocket said from the other side of control where he sat at his station.

She looked his way," That would probably just make it worse."

He stared at her for a beat then shrugged his furry shoulders, "Eh, maybe I need a drink."

"Rocket, you can’t drink while you're in control of the ship," Fiona told him, though when she thougth back on it he probably just said it to annoy her.

He gave her an incredulous look, "Who made up that stupid rule?"

Peter walked in then, "No Rocket, you cannot drink while you're in control of the ship. Geesh man come on.” He looked over at Fiona, "Yondu wants you to go to the crematory. I'll take over for now."

She took a deep breath and nodded as she stood up. He put a hand to her shoulder with a slight smile as she walked by him and she reached up to pat his hand. When she made it to the crematory she found Yondu and Kraglin there with Stakar, Aleta, and Charlie-27. There were 5 pyres set up letting her know that all five had been men loyal to Yondu. Yondu stood back with his arms crossed over his chest, implant flashing, while she made her way around the pyres. There were three crew she knew but hadn't been close to. Kraglin's friend Oblo was on one of the pyres. When Fiona made it to the final pyre in front of where Yondu stood the breath left her body in a sob. It was Tullk.

She reached out a hand to touch his face which was cool to the touch as she'd known it would be. The idea of putting him into the cryorepair pod fleetingly crossed her mind, but she knew it wouldn't do any good in his case. He'd been in deep vac far too long and there was just too much damage. It would simply be selfish on her part, and not at all fair to the man she'd considered a brother for so many years. She leaned down into his shoulder and put her arms around him as best she could sobbing silently for a few seconds before she pulled herself together and stood back up. Suddenly Yondu was there wrapping her in his arms and holding her tight against him.

"Can ya give us a minute?" She heard him say to the rest of them.

There was some shuffling and then quiet.

"Darlin'?"

"Yeah?" She looked up to him with watery eyes.

He put his hands on either side of her face, kissed her lips, and held her eyes while he spoke, "I'm sorry this happened the way it did. Sorry ya never gotta chance ta say goodbye to the brother ya left on Terra. Sorry this one was taken the way he was."

Fiona laid her forehead on his shoulder and was quiet a few minutes while she stood there in Yondu's arms breathing him in, absorbing his strength, and bringing her racing thoughts in order. Finally, she looked back up into his ruby eyes. "Family isn't always what you were born with. More often than not it's what you make of it. We have that here, now, on this ship with us. We've all lost something. Someone. Every one of us. But in the end it's brought us closer, bonded us together, and made us stronger. Let's make the most of that Yondu. Let's go steal shit and keep saving the Galaxies together."

He grinned then, that shit eating grin of his, and that's exactly what they did.

The END of this part of their story

To be continued in Part 2

Ravagers in Guardians Clothing or the Other Way Around?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of Part 2 - Ravagers in Guardians Clothing or the Other Way Around? - will be posted shortly.


	33. Chapter 27.5: Why Did He Keep Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one-shot falls between Chapter 27 Family Reunion…Yaaaay and Chapter 28 The Other 99 Ravager Clans. Just a bit of backstory and emotion between Peter and Fiona prompted by the “He wasn’t your Daddy” scene from GOTG2.

When Fiona woke up she was still sitting in the chair next to the cryorepair pod with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and the side of her head leaning on the pod. She blinked her eyes open and rubbed at them while she tried to focus in the dimmed light on the figure standing in front of the pod looking down at Yondu. It took her a minute but she finally recognized Peter’s outline. He was right in front of her and even though he’d apologized it still felt like he was far away.

Peter must have sensed she was awake because he turned his head and looked over at her. His eyes were red-rimmed and she could see tears running down his cheeks. The mother in her took over and she stood up quickly to put her arms around him. He hugged her, tighter than he had in at least a decade, and the sob that escaped him was full of sorrow.

“He’s gotta make it Mom,” he croaked. “Yondu can’t die.”

She put her hand on top of his head and stroked his hair like she would when he was young. Before she could stop herself though she was sobbing right along with him. As much as she didn’t want to admit it she was terrified that pod wasn’t going to work and that Yondu wouldn’t wake up. That wasn’t something she was going to tell Peter though. “He’s going to be fine sweetie. It’s just going to take some time.”

They stood there in front of Yondu’s pod holding each other and crying for longer than either of them would ever admit to anyone else. When Peter finally pulled himself together he stood up straight and used his sleeve to wipe his face, just like he did when he was a kid, and Fiona rolled her eyes at him while she retrieved some tissues and handed a few to him. She wiped her face and checked the pod monitors then turned back to see Peter was sitting down in one of the chairs against the wall. He had his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together between them. Despite the years that separated them she knew the man she’d raised from a young boy well and knew he was working some things out in his mind.

Fiona sat down in the chair next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. She wasn’t sure if _she_ needed the connection or if she was really just trying to let him know she was there for him. They sat in silence for a long time before he finally turned to look at her. Despite the dimmed light she could see the green of his hazel eyes shining as they always did when his emotions were high.

“Yondu was going to sacrifice himself to save me,” Peter sounded baffled and awed at the same time. Like he genuinely never realized Yondu loved him enough to give his own life to save Peter’s.

She reached a hand out to grasp his forearm and held his eyes, “Of course he was Peter. Yondu wa…is your Daddy.” Fiona’s heart jumped into her throat when she corrected herself.

He looked unsettled and wiped at his eyes again, “I never treated him like he was. I always thought he just put up with me because my father never showed up.”

Fiona smiled, “No Peter. No.” She shook her head, “I wasn’t there when he picked you up but you were different.” Fiona studied Peter’s face, his expressions so much like Yondu’s it truly was hard to believe that Peter was not Yondu’s son by blood. “Yondu sincerely believed he was uniting children with a father who wanted to be their daddy. You know about his past…” When Peter swallowed and nodded she continued, “He’s always believed children should be with a parent who loves them, it’s what he longed for as a child and Stakar and Aleta were able to give him. But after Ego admitted what he was doing with his children Yondu was devastated. He told me that Ego revealed all that at the same time he was giving Yondu the information to pick you up. At that point Yondu had decided he wasn’t going to bring anymore children to Ego and had no plans to pick you up. But he said the more he thought about it the more he realized that not doing anything was the cowards way out and he found a family that would take you in until your father could pick you up. At least that’s what he told them knowing full well they’d raise you until you were an adult.”

Peter was sitting up at that point and staring over at Yondu’s pod while he listened to Fiona relay part of his history that he never knew.

“From what I understand you were a little hellion when the tractor beam dumped you on board the _Eclector_ ,” Fiona told him with a chuckle. “I think you even bit a few of them.”

He dropped his chin to his chest and squeezed his eyes shut, “Yeah, I bit Yondu, Kraglin, and Horuz. My mom had literally just died. I ran out into the field behind the hospital where she was and the _Warbird_ was there waiting. She’d always told me my father was an angel from the stars and was going to come back for me.”

Tears pricked at Fiona’s eyes for the devastation Peter must have felt at losing his mother and then being picked up by a bunch of strange aliens all within minutes of each other. “Well, in a way she was right.” She looked over at Peter who had lifted his head and was giving her a baffled look. “Ego was a god-like being from another galaxy altogether. That’s how he would have seemed to her. And to be fair, he never revealed his true nature or intent to her so her love for and belief in him, from her perspective, was pure.”

“Yeah.” Peter had pressed his lips up into his teeth, much like Yondu did when he was upset about something.

“Meredith didn’t know what he was Peter. He hid that well.”

“Yondu knew, he figured it out.”

“That’s not fair sweetie. Yondu has lived his life in space, as a Kree battle slave, then as a Ravager,” Fiona’s tone was firm and his eyes flicked to her. “Your mother was charmed by a being who was shrewd enough to play Yondu.”

He paused while he considered that, “I really didn’t think about it like that. Yondu somehow always seems to know _everything_. I guess if Ego was able to convince Yondu that he wanted to raise his kids and be one big happy family then playing my mother wasn’t really much of an effort.”

“No, it probably wasn’t.”

Peter grew quiet then and looked back at Yondu’s pod. When he spoke he was so quiet Fiona could just barely hear him, “Why did he keep me? Why didn’t he just give me to that family he found?”

Fiona smiled and reached a hand out to his shoulder, “He saw himself in you and he knew you were his boy. Even if you don’t share blood. He knew back then that he was meant to be your Daddy.” She watched as he processed that piece of information with tears running down his face.

“Mom…” He sucked in a breath and held it for a minute, “What I said to you, when I called you a prostitute...”

Fiona started to shake her head but Peter’s eyes widened as if to tell her to shut up.

“I am so so sorry for that, and everything else I said,” he continued. “I was angry at Yondu because I didn’t understand and I took it out on you. Now I realize what he did, everything he did, was to give me a chance to live without my douchbag of a father using me to take over the universe. He really was a good dad but I just never realized it was because he actually considered me his kid. I always thought he did it because he was taking care of me for someone else.”

She shook her head.

“Yeah, I know that now. I just hope I get to tell him.”

“You will sweetie, you will,” she told him and grasped his hand while they both looked at Yondu’s pod. Each of them drawing strength from the other and restoring the bond that had been broken through years of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and Ego’s influence.


	34. Fun With Groot and Girl Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are just two drabbles that fit into Yondu and Fiona's story.

FUN WITH GROOT

**Warnings: none**

Peter and Rocket searched everywhere for Groot and they couldn't find the little Flora Colossuss anywhere. He'd been extremely attached to Yondu since the grumpy old Centaurian had woken up after his near death in deep vac but they couldn't find Yondu either. They found Fiona and Kraglin in control who said Yondu had been in there with Groot an hour earlier and were headed to the M ship bay. When they got to the bay in question they heard Groot's squeals of delight among Yondu's whistles.

Rounding the newly repaired _Milano_ they found Yondu standing on the other side looking up in the air with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face as he whistled. When Peter and Rocket looked to what Yondu was watching they both nearly had a heart attack. Groot was riding around in the air on Yondu's Yaka Arrow.

"Dude! Safety first. What are you? FIVE?" Peter exclaimed as Groot zipped by on the arrow and Peter reached out to catch him.

Yondu caught his arrow and turned to look at Peter, "Wha'? Twig was havin' fun."

"We could make him a harness," Rocket offered, and Groot nodded enthusiatically in Peter's hand.

Peter's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, "How the hell did I survive my childhood?"

********************************************

GIRL TALK

**Warnings: none**

"You don't want to go in there," Peter passed Yondu coming back down the hall from the Captain's Quarters looking frazzled. His hair was sticking up and one of his side burns looked singed.

Narrowing his eyes at his retreating son he shook his head, Gods knew what Peter had said or done. When he walked into the main area of the Captain's Quarters he found Fiona, Mantis, and Gamora all sitting on the couch there with a bottle of liquor he didn't recognize in front of them and glasses in their hands. They were laughing and talking until he stood in front of them hands on hips, then they all shut up and looked at him with blank expressions.

"Wha's goin' on in here?" He asked his wife and what were essentially his daughters.

Fiona narrowed one eye to focus on him, "This is girl talk, so leave."

"Darlin' I'm'tha Cap'n, this is tha Cap'ns Quarters," he put his hands on his hips and studied their faces. All three of them appeared drunk. What were they drinking?

Fiona held up a hand and gave him a drunken smile, "Love you Yondu. Bye now!"

Suddenly a yellow energy field enveloped him and floated him back to the door which opened and the field deposited him outside the door before dissipating. The door closed in his face and he blinked before turning and heading back down the hall in the same direction Peter went. When he encountered Kraglin on his way to the Captain's Quarters he shook his head at his first mate.

"Ya don't wanna go in there," Yondu told him and kept going.

He heard Kraglin hesitate for just a second before turning and following behind him.


End file.
